


Defect | Hermitcraft Virus AU

by Kirsiyanna



Category: Hermitcraft RPF, Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Apocalypse, Freindships, Gen, No shipping, The Button, Virus, hermitcraft season 7, personas only, some violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:33:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 24,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27358069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kirsiyanna/pseuds/Kirsiyanna
Summary: The Hermits get some sort of game virus in the server that caused a whole apocalyptic scene to happen because of one simple prank. What will the Hermits do as their friendships get tested?~°~°~°~°~°~°~°~The virus, Purple Spreading Virus, PSV-7Symptoms:•Contorted vocals•Slow reaction to everything•Becomes aggressive without a reason•Slowly makes eyes glow purple after a few weeks of getting infected•Slowly corrupts your skin and glitches, defects you out
Kudos: 35





	1. Prologue

Docm77, that's what his name is. He was the mad scientist in Hermitville that everyone knows. He's reckless, possibly even mad. Just recently this man camped himself in front of this button social experiment game for more than 20 hours just to get his desired belt. Lots of time wasted yet he hasn't gotten his desired red belt.

What's this button game, you ask? The Button, this machine was built by the Mumbo Jumbo. He's great at redstone and made this little machinery for everyone living in Hermitville. The Button was made for a little social experiment that he has been wanting to do for years. Well, what is it? The Button is alive, it has to be kept alive by being pressed.

The closer to death the button is when you save it, the higher "rank" you get. It is signified by a colored belt or a custom colored look of your preference. If you press the button, the redstone lamps of the machinery would fill back up and you will get a colored piece of block and you should attach this on to your rank clothing piece. The ranks are as follows, lower to higher. Purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and red.

Since Docm77, Doc for short, is truly fond of this new game, he wants to be able to get a red rank. He wants to be signified as the top and would like himself a sweet, sweet victory. So he then starts camping for more than 20 hours to do so. Other Hermits in Hermitville would always mess around with him whenever he camps. Always pushing the button when it's green, always pushing the button when it's yellow. Iskall85 stole the button, then Grian, then FalseSymmetry, then Xisuma. Doc tries again, and again, but he doesn't seem to get his desired belt.

"Not today."

Doc says to himself, smiling mischievously. He will be getting his revenge on everyone who messed with him. All he wanted was the red belt, he spent loads of hours awake for it, loads of hours staying up, loads of hours sitting on his built throne in front of the button. This time, he will get revenge.

Of course, for the crazy Scientist that he is, Doc has made some experiments in the past. He knows things that others don't know, all kinds of unknown chemicals, all kinds of commands that he wishes to test out. So, he then put all of his knowledge into an experiment. An experiment that would turn anyone's belt back to purple rank, a harmless experiment to take revenge. He spent all night working on a block that would turn the belt of the person who touches it purple. It's like a purple spreading virus per say. Doc stuck with that name and will continue to stick with it.

After hours and hours of work into this block, it was finally up for testing. Of course, Doc didn't want to test it on himself, he would be too embarrassed to get himself a purple belt if the block did work. So, he devised a plan that would trick Xisuma, one of the people who keeps messing with Doc with the button, to touching the experimented block. Xisuma would work like a guinea pig without being forced to become one as Doc would say. He then got his elytra on and flew away with the rockets in his hand. He landed outside of Xisuma's massive bee-like base and marveled at the sight. He then snapped himself out of it and went inside to look for the friendly admin.

"Xisuma?" Doc called out for him, walking around and looking top to bottom for him. "I'm right here!" Doc hears the admin's voice from his left. He walks over to where he heard his voice and saw Xisuma tending to one of his shulker boxes. Xisuma smiles under his helmet and tilts his head to Doc. "Are you here to destroy my base because of me stealing the button from you?" He chuckles a little at his little joke. Doc rolls his eye at this and chuckles along with him. "Yeah, yeah, I'm here to blow up your base with the non-existent TnT in my hand." He jokes back, the father GOAT almost forgetting why he was here in the first place.

Xisuma smiles under his helmet and looks back to his shulker boxes that he was sorting out. "So what are you doing here, really?" He asks, glancing up at the mad scientist behind him. Doc scratches his chin and looks at the admin sorting out his shulker boxes.

"I actually came here to tell you that I found a bug of some sort. I was building something in my secret lab and when I placed purple concrete down the block started glitching. I didn't break it or anything since I wasn't so sure if breaking it was a good thing." He acts out, his eyes still focusing on Xisuma. The admin let out a small chuckle when he heard the word "purple concrete". "Are you trying to get a purple belt?" He jokes to Doc as he closes his shulker box.

The GOAT father rolls his eye at this. "I-I'm not, okay?" He replies, crossing his arms. Xisuma let's out a small chuckle then looks at Doc. "Are you going to lead me to it or not?" The admin asks, turning a serious face on. Doc nods and walks out of the base and starts firing rockets up for his elytra. The admin follows suit, flying with his small bee wings attached to his suit hoping in the back of his mind that it's not some sort of prank.

The two tall Hermits approach the front of the GOAT father's base. Doc lead Xisuma to his secret little area, disabling his high tech security to let Xisuma in. Doc showed Xisuma his secret lab and lowly said to him. "Please don't let any other Hermit know of this place." Xisuma turns to Doc and nodded, swearing to not let anyone else know.

Doc opened a door and lead Xisuma to the purple glitching block that was placed in the middle of the room where he was experimenting on it. Xisuma looked at the block, very fascinated by the sight of it. The block was indeed purple concrete, the only thing that only made it look like a "bug" was the very extraordinary glitches of the block.

"I.. wow." Was the only thing that was said of the green robe wearing bee Hermit. "This is definitely a bug that I have not seen before." He adds, circling around the purple glitching block. "I know, it looks really mesmerizing." Doc states, his plan going into place with this experiment.

"I'll have to take a closer look at this one." Xisuma says as he brings up his admin commands. "Touch it if you need to, X." Doc smiles, nodding to him with his permission. Xisuma did as so, he reached his hand out towards the purple glitching block and touched it. Once he did, his robe glowed a purple hue and in a split second it turned purple. His eyes widened at the sight and retracted his hand away from the block. He looked at his sleeves in shock, the once green robe was now purple. Doc laughed behind him, smiling and happy that his little experiment worked.

Xisuma turned to Doc and got a bit mad. "Doc what's this— why is my robe purple?!" He glares daggers towards the laughing GOAT father as he slowly calms down. "Dude, relax, it was just a little experiment I did. Looks really cool isn't it?" Doc says, showing Xisuma his list of unknown chemicals and some commands of his own. Xisuma didn't know what to feel, or say at the moment.

First, he was mad that he did all this just so his rank would go down to purple. Second, he was so fascinated that Doc did all this with just commands and chemicals like these that he hasn't even seen before. The admin then opened his mouth to say something.

"Alright, alright, you got me. This is revenge right?" Xisuma chuckles a bit and looks at Doc who was smiling proudly. "Definitely revenge." He snickers at the end of his sentence, a small smile plastered on his face right after. The admin laughed along with him and smiles. "Are you going to be using this block to the other Hermits as well?" He looks at the block and circles it once again.

"Yes I am actually." The mad scientist says, proudly telling him. Xisuma frowns a little and looks at his admin log. "I want you to do that buddy but it wouldn't be fair at all, you already got revenge on me, I feel like that's enough.." He trails off and closes his admin log. "Plus it's making the server quite laggy and a bit glitchy in a few areas, we're going to need to destroy this block." Xisuma looks up at the creeper hybrid and smiles sympathetically.

Doc frowns when he hears the news. He then sighs and nods understandingly. "Alright, let's go burn this block." He smiles and pulls out his flint and steel from his pocket. Xisuma got a spare pickaxe lying around and used it to pick up the purple concrete glitching block. "Do you always have that on you?" He asks Doc, chuckling a bit. Doc smiles and shrugs.

"Maybe." He replies, giggling a bit. He then lights the quartz floor on fire so Xisuma can throw the very cursed block in the fire. The admin tosses the block in the fire and completely burns it. "At least I got my sweet revenge on you." Doc chuckles and crosses his arms.

Xisuma laughed and gets his elytra and rockets ready. "Yeah, you did, I'll give you a little clap for that." He says, clapping softly for Doc. The creeper hybrid bowed down playfully and smiles. "Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week!" He looks back up at Xisuma and grins. Xisuma packs up and walks out of the lab, Doc following just behind.

"Well I'll be off now! You gave me a few good laughs there." He nods to Doc and grins under his helmet. "I'll see ya around Doc." The admin says as a farewell as he takes off with his rockets and elytra. "Remember not to cause anymore trouble with your crazy experiments!" He calls out, Doc barely able to hear it. "I will!" The GOAT father calls out, waving goodbye at the friendly admin.

Doc sighs and smiles, at least he got revenge on one of them, and that's all that mattered to him.


	2. Something's Wrong With Xisuma

Doc was running around his base, doing errands. While he was sorting through his chests and getting things he needs ready for today, he hears footsteps behind him. "Doc?" A familiar voice behind him calls out, patiently waiting for the mad scientist to respond. Doc turns around and sees BdoubleO100, or well, Bdubs for short. His ex enemy and neighbor.

"Bdubs? What's up, is there something wrong? Did the GOAT mother kill you again?" Doc joked, chuckling a bit as he looks at Bdubs who was quite nervous. "Well, I.. don't really spread out rumors but Keralis told me something very.. concerning." He explains to him, fiddling with his fingers a little.

Doc raises an eyebrow at this, now really intrigued with how things are going. He sits down on the edge of the hill where the GOAT mother is visible and pats the space next to him for Bdubs to sit. Bdubs sits down next to Doc and looks at the GOAT mother and sighs. "What happened?" Doc asks the concerned Hermit next to him, tilting his head a bit while glancing at him. "Well.. Keralis told me that.. Well, Xisuma has been acting a bit strange recently.." Bdubs starts off, his fingers finding its way to fiddle themselves again.

Doc nods and shifts all his focus to his friend as a sign to continue. "So I went over to Xisuma's base to check up on him. He was there, yeah, but.. when I talked to him he was just glaring down at me and scoffing. I then told him to stop with the joking to know if he was actually okay– and he, spoke to me. He said to me "What joke." and I was in total shock!" Bdubs continues, his normally cheerful voice now a bit shaky and serious.

The GOAT father was confused about this and asks him, "Did he say anything else?" He tilts his head down at Bdubs and pats his back. Bdubs nodded and looks up at the taller hermit. "I told him that I was concerned about him, but all he did was threaten me with his sword and scoff again. He told me to not waste his time and leave him alone." He finishes, looking down from the hill and sighing.

"And that was 2 days ago. I gave him some space and I'm scared to talk to him again. He really looked like he hated me. H-How could the normally friendly and approachable Xisuma do that, right–?" Bdubs mumbles the last part, enough for Doc to hear. Bdubs was right, his story was so far off the normally friendly admin. You wouldn't expect someone like Xisuma, go off at a Hermit like that or anyone at all.

"Have you talked to him recently? Or seen him?" Bdubs asks Doc, frowning a bit. Doc shook his head at this question from Bdubs. "The last time I spoke to him was a week ago when I showed him something from my secret lab." He says, remembering that day with the purple glitching block. Bdubs frowns and nods understandingly. "I see." He says, sighing a bit.

Doc was confused and concerned concerned at this point. He was also Xisuma's friend, every Hermit was, he felt obligated to check on him. "I'll go talk to him today, if that's alright with you?" He finally says, smiling a bit at Bdubs. Bdubs looks up at the mad scientist again, his eyes widened. "Nono– you don't have to. I can go talk to him myself today–" Doc cuts him off and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Then let's go together."

Bdubs chuckles and tilts his head to the side. "Are– are you sure you want to go?" He questions Doc to make sure he really does want to do this. "Positive. I'm also his friend, we need to be there for him, right?" Doc smiles a bit, his friendly side to him showing. Bdubs chuckles a little and nods. "Well, alright, if you really want to go, let's go." He says, standing up and adjusting his handy elytra. "Wait– right now–?" Doc asks, standing up as well and stumbling a bit. "Yes right now!" Bdubs says, his cheery side to him coming back.

The GOAT father rolls his eyes at his friend. "Why am I your neighbor again." He chuckles slightly, joking a little. "Hey– wh– come on, we resolved our fight fair and square!" Bdubs pouts, crossing his arms. Doc punches his shoulder playfully and rolls his eyes. "Okay, come on you Boomer. Xisuma may not be in his base when we come." He smiles and takes off to the sky with his rockets and elytra.

Bdubs follows suit as Doc hears fireworks going off in the distance from him. The two Hermits then flew over to their friend Xisuma's base, firework rockets all blasting in the air. The two finally lands down in front of the massive base. Doc leads and goes first inside of Xisuma's base, looking around for him. He finally sees the still purple robe that the bee admin was wearing. He beckons Bdubs over and starts walking towards Xisuma.

"Xisuma, how are you doing buddy." Doc says, coming up behind him. No response. Bdubs tilts his head and sighs. "Are you good, are you still upset?" He asks, walking a little closer to him. Xisuma turns around and glares daggers at the two. "I'm fine. What are you two doing here?" He says in a harsh, sarcastic way. Though, there was.. something wrong with his voice as Doc noticed.

"Dude.. what happened to your voice?" The mad scientist asks his bee friend, tilting his head to the side. Xisuma's voice, it was deeper than usual and quite disturbing. Is he sick? What happened to him during the past days? Bdubs backed away a little and frowns. "It's fine." Xisuma speaks again, his voice still very much like the one before.

Both Bdubs and Doc are a bit scared at the sudden change, at the very sudden change. "Are you sick, X? Maybe you should take a rest and we'll bring you some me—" Bdubs was cut off by a diamond sword threatening to slice his neck.

Doc immediately pulls Bdubs away. "Xisuma what has gotten into you?!" He yells a little, putting Bdubs behind him. Xisuma scoffs and glares daggers at the two Hermits in front of him. "Why can't you all just leave me alone?!" He yells, groaning and pointing his diamond sword at them.

Doc has a lot of mixed feelings about this, he was terrified, he was mad, he was concerned all at the same time. "Doc, let's just go– let's give him more time to cool off–" Bdubs says, tugging on the sleeve of Doc's lab gown. Doc glares at Xisuma one last time before walking away, Bdubs following immediately.

The GOAT father stops walking once the two were outside of Xisuma's base yet again. "What was up with him? He almost killed you! He almost killed us–!" He questions, still extremely confused about what just occurred. Bdubs takes a glance of the inside of Xisuma's base and sides. "Maybe he's not feeling well, he's normally not like this." He says to Doc, looking back at him.

Doc sighs and walks forward, Bdubs following again. "Just, that wasn't like him at all. Maybe something's up." He says, stopping again and turning to Bdubs. Bdubs crosses his arms and sighs. "Let's just give him more space, yeah? We'll go check up on him in a few more days and if nothing works out we need to go call in an emergency meeting." He smiles, reassuring Doc that all would hopefully go fine.

The two then went their separate ways, hoping in the back of their head that their friend would be alright. Doc went back to his base, a bit tired from the show that just happened. He went downstairs of his base and went past his lab. He stops in his tracks and glances back at the lab, thinking deeply in the back of his mind. "Could it be.. nah."

Doc dismisses his thoughts and walks away from the lab, humming a bit to himself and going to his bedroom once he finished checking if his base was all safe and good and going well.


	3. Area 77 2.0

"Doc!"

Doc hears from the outside of his base, he looks outside of his window and sees GoodTimesWithScar, or Scar for short, calling out for his name with Cubfan135 or Cub and FalseSymmetry or False behind his back. He raised an eyebrow at this. "What a completely random set of Hermits." The creeper hybrid thinks to himself as he goes downstairs and go to where the three Hermits are. He pulls on a small smile and cocks an eyebrow at all of them.

"Something the matter, boys? Lady?" Doc asks the group, crossing his arms. "Actually, yes, there is." Cub responds to the question, stepping up from behind Scar. Doc was not expecting that. "Doc, we need the Area 77 team back." Scar says, his eyes twinkling with excitement and his lips curling into a smile, False following along and nodding.

Doc's eyes widened at this statement. Area 77 was a small team they had back in season 6, it was for weird things and experimentation back in those days with the Hippies against them.

Cub steps in again and sighs. "Guys let's not get too excited, this is a serious matter that we all found." He says, putting his hand in his pocket and pulling out a book and quill. Doc nods and smiles, still excited for all the shenanigans that they will be doing today.

"What seems to be the problem then? I'm not quite catching up with this." Doc asks, unfolding his arms and looking at everyone. False nods and started explaining to Doc "It all started the other day. I found weird looking bees. Instead of yellow stripes they were purple, and they had purple glowing eyes." She says, remembering the day clearly. "I left them alone, thinking I was just imagining things." She continues her story, but then gets interrupted by Scar.

"I found some weird looking sheep and zombies yesterday. The sheep I saw was purple dyed, so I thought someone just left their purple dyed sheep there and would be back for it later. But the thing weird about the sheep is that its eyes were glowing purple as well, like how Falsie described them." He continues the story for her, his smile didn't leave and continues talking passionately. "And then we have the zombie, the zombie was so weird, it was glitching out, his shirt was purple and its eyes were glowing purple as well. Those were some weird looking mobs."

Scar still continues looking at everyone intently. "So I went up to Cub earlier and apparently False had told him a similar story. So we got her and went here to get you for Area 77!" He finishes, chuckling slightly.

Cub rolls his eyes and smiles a bit. "Would you like to join us in finding some of the mobs and you know, experiment on them like you used to?" He offers to Doc, tilting his head a bit and looking at Doc patiently. The GOAT father was a bit hesitant on this. Purple? Glitches? It was like his experiment, did setting it up on fire cause it to spread on the other mobs? He sighs and puts on a small smile.

"Sure, why not? Area 77 was fun. Area 77 2.0 sounds fun." The mad scientist says, chuckling a bit. The wizard chap cheers, the skilled PvP gal smiles and the pharaoh nods. "Trust me, you will not regret it. Let's go get our elytras and search around." Cub says as he puts away his book and quill and puts on his elytra. The rest follows as him, putting on their elytras and getting their rockets ready.

"Where should we head to first?" False asks, straightening her elytra. "How about we go check on the purple sheep that I was talking about?" Scar suggests, feeling confident about this. The rest nods at the suggestion, agreeing on it. Scar leads the way while the others follow suit. They all then glide down onto a mountain near a forest, immediately spotting the purple sheep that Scar was talking about. It now had weird glitches on it, making it look very mysterious and buggy.

"Woah." False says, getting close to the sheep. Before she could touch the sheep Cub pulled her away, yanking her arm. "Dude! What the hell? You scared me." False jumps, backing away from the sheep. "I uh, you just made me remember something." Cub says, pulling out a shulker box and opening it. He hands Scar and Doc some protective gloves that were like False's and smiles.

"Just to be sure." He reassures, putting on gloves to himself. The two other Hermits do the same, putting gloves on their hands carefully. False crosses her arms and rolls her eyes. "Well that was really unnecessary dude." She says, but got over it fairly quickly. Doc eyes the purple glitching sheep, resting his chin on top of his hand, his eyebrow furrowing at it. It similarly looked like the purple glitching concrete that he made in his lab. He wasn't so sure about it so he said nothing about his little experiment he had in his lab.

Cub was writing down the physical appearance of the sheep in his journal with a quill, humming a little and nodding at his notes, satisfied. Scar went over to the sheep and looked at it intently. "It doesn't look like it's attacking us. Maybe it's friendly!" He says, pulling out wheat from his inventory to feed the sheep. As soon as he pulls it out, the sheep started to freak out and tried to attack Scar.

This shocked the four Hermits. Scar fell down, tripping on a rock while he was running away from the sheep, the wheat in his hand thrown away. With a second of staring at the attacking sheep, False pushed the sheep away from Scar with her gloved hands. "Or– uh– maybe not–" Scar finally says, out of his shock. Doc helped Scar up then eyes the sheep on the ground, probably passed out from False pushing it away quite harshly.

'What just happened there–?" Doc asks, a bit terrified of what happened. You would have never expected, a purple glitching sheep, with purple glowing eyes to just attack you one day. "I tried to feed it wheat but it seems like it got angry at me for trying to feed it–?" Scar says hesitantly, staring at the sheep himself.

Cub nods and takes note of it on his journal. "..getting aggressive once you try to give it something.." He mumbles as he writes it down on his journal. False took out her diamond sword and looked at the sheep with it. "Should I kill it?" She asks, ready to plunge the sword into the wooly sheep's body.

Cub looks up from his journal and shakes his head. "We need it.. for testing. It doesn't seem like it would be a threat to anyone unless you approach them with food, maybe. We're still not sure, it's why we're here in the first place, to study it." He says, smiling a bit as he looks at the sheep. "Should I warn the other Hermits about this then? That's it's safe around the passive mobs with.. purple glitches?" Scar asks everyone, pulling out his communicator.

Doc nods at this, picking up the sheep with his robot arm. "Yeah, I'd say it would be best to tell them that we're looking into it. They don't really look that harmful." He states, carefully putting the sheep onto his back. Scar nods at this and starts typing in his communicator.

"Everyone, you might see mobs with purple on them and glowing eyes. They passive mobs are not that harmful unless you feed it for some reason, they'll attack you if you do. Don't mind the purple glitching and just play normally. The Area 77 team is still looking on to it and we'll update as soon as we can! (Yes, Area 77 is back! :D)"

He types out, chuckling a little as he types out the end of his message and sends it to a groupchat with all of the Hermits.

As soon as the message was sent, the other three's communicators made an alerting noise as a reminder that they've received the message. "Let's go place the sheep in my pyramid, I think that would be a safe place." The pharaoh says, smiling a bit. Doc nods and tightens his grip on the sheep on his back. "False go and see if you can find another normal sheep." Cub instructs, gathering his things to get ready to leave.

False nods and walks not too far away to see a normal sheep with her little one following. Scar sees and smiles, going over to False and picking up the small one in his arms. "I'll carry this little one." He says, chuckling a little. "Gee, thanks for helping a lady out." False giggles and carries the grown sheep behind her back getting ready to walk over to Cub's huge pyramid.

The two walked back to Cub and Doc, from there the four Hermits along with the sheep they "captured" for experimentation started walking back to Cub's desert place which was actually not too far to their surprise. Once they reach the inside of the massive pyramid, Cub immediately started to build a place for the sheep. Three separate containers all covered in iron and glass just to be sure. The three other Hermits then placed each of their sheep on their respective testing chambers of some sort.

"Alright, first we need to heal up the purple sheep. If you don't mind, Falsie, can you get a regeneration potion from that chest?" Cub politely asks, pointing at the chest on the side. False goes over to it and opens the chest, getting out a regeneration splash potion and throws it on to the purple sheep, making it awake quickly. It seems the sheep isn't attacking anyone or remembered what happened earlier which was a relief.

"It still looks the same as before, even after getting knocked out." Doc states, Cub nodding and taking notes of that. Scar sat down in front of the chamber where the little sheep was and started playing with it through the glass that was separating them. "It doesn't seem to be minding the other sheep as well, it looks friendly." False states out, putting a hand on the glass that was separating her and the purple sheep. The purple sheep was seemingly minding its business, walking around and making "mehh" noises.

"What if we put the two adult sheep together." Doc suggest, bringing out his pickaxe and ready to break the iron wall that was separating the two sheep. Cub nods at Doc's statement, agreeing to it and smiling.

Doc climbs on top of the chambers and starts breaking the wall in between them. The two sheep were in a bit of a confusion but started minding their own business. The four Hermits watch the sheep for a while until the purple sheep brushed up against the normal white one, immediately changing the white sheep into purple almost immediately. Everyone saw and was amazed? Shocked? It was a sight to see it happen.

Cub immediately took down notes and Scar started shouting "It's alive!" repeatedly. Doc and False laughs at this as they watch the two now purple sheep together. Though it was weird, the normal sheep that turned into a purple sheep didn't have glowing eyes or glitchy effects. Doc noticed it after he finally finished laughing at Scar's stupidity and immediately told Cub.

Cub took down more notes and looked up at the three other Hermits. "I feel like we can now wrap this up now." He says, smiling a bit and nodding at the three for dismissal.

False started walking away and saying her farewell, Scar following along after he said goodbye to the sheep and to everyone else of course. Doc was the only one left, other than Cub who owns the place. He cleared his throat and smiles. "I'm guessing you're going to keep watch on these overnight?" He asks, tilting his head to the side.

Cub laughs and nods, rolling his eyes. "Obviously, I need to go watch over them to see if anything happens." He replies, getting things from a chest and building a makeshift chair just for him. Doc let's out a small laugh. "Alright, if you need a buddy to help you watch I can do it. I've been trained to watch the button for hours so it's the same as watching sheep, I guess." He jokes, shaking his head at his lame joke.

Cub snickers and rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, button man." He laughs and shoos Doc away, and so he did. Doc went inside of the portal that Cub has and starts walking towards his own portal back to his base. Today was something, and it's been fun looking at odd looking mobs today.


	4. It Got To Him Too

Doc just came out of his nether portal after maybe staring at the button and buying some things he needed in the cowmercial district. He hums a small tune of one of his favorite songs and stores the items that he bought into a chest in his basement. As he goes upstairs to the first floor of his half house, he sees Bdubs running over to him in a slight panic. "Doc!" He exclaims, plopping inside of the house because of the huge hole in the wall and stops in front of him, panting.

That was the second time this week that Doc's name got called out, which is quite coincidental. "Bdubs, woah, you okay there buddy?" The GOAT father asks, bending down slightly at the smaller Hermit as he puts a hand on the bed-man's shoulder. Bdubs looks up at Doc and tears up, making the creeper hybrid really confused and worried about his neighboring friend.

"Come on now, what happened? Did the GOAT mother hurt you again? I told you to stop putting dirt as a sacrifice to her." Doc joked, trying to make the place have less tension. Bdubs chuckled softly at the joke and frowned again. "I.. it got to him too." He says quite softly, which is very unlikely for the normally loud Bdubs. "What got to him? Who is him?" Doc asks, raising an eyebrow at Bdubs from confusion.

Bdubs looks down and sighs, sitting on Doc's couch. "Keralis." He says, looking back up at the mad scientist. Doc sits down beside Bdubs and rubs his back, raising an eyebrow again, still very confused. "What about him? Is the Swede alright? Don't tell me he stole the button again–" Doc asks, trying to lighten the mood with his joke at the end.

Bdubs laughs again and shakes his head, punching Doc a little. "I visited Keralis lately, we, the Boomers and I wanted to do his kind of late request. Me being a CEO and wanting to visit my buddy again, went up to his base to discuss to him about the request right? I went through his nether portal, then I walked out and saw him talking to his llamas. The weird thing was, his llamas were those purple llamas and he was feeding them, he isn't supposed to do that– right?" He states, telling his story to Doc as much detail as he could.

The scientist nods, remembering the day where Scar almost got attacked by a passive sheep because of feeding it. "Yeah, Scar almost died from just feeding a purple sheep." Doc chuckles, it was quite a funny experience to look at now actually. He nods at Bdubs, signaling him to continue his story.

"I went up to him and asked him what's going on and he just, glared at me. I asked if I did something wrong and walked up to him more. He just glared, and glared, and then suddenly he pulled out his bow! I backed away from him and the look of his eyes were so mad! He was like grumpy Xisuma 2.0! Attacking friends out of nowhere-!" From that point, Doc stopped listening, he looked to the ground and started thinking to himself.

Attacking people without a reason? Purple, Keralis must have something purple on him. It all clicked in his head. What if the purple corruption was the reason for Xisuma's behavior? Was Keralis corrupted as well? Doc has to make sure of that.

"–And then I started running away from him and into the portal– he was my friend and–" Doc cuts him off, his eye filled with worry and hesitation. "Bdubs, can you hold that thought for a second? I need to ask you an important question. Did Keralis have a purple belt?" He asks, looking intently into Bdubs' eyes, not ever losing his focus on him.

Bdubs blinked at this and started laughing, thinking that question was a joke for him to feel better. "Haha– Doc, you just want the red belt so badly—" Doc glares at Bdubs and crosses his arms. "I'm serious." He stated sternly, his glare getting even more intense.

Bdubs gulps and tries to remember Keralis' appearance when he saw him. He tilts his head to the side and nods, remembering him correctly. "Yeah, he has a purple belt." Bdubs says, raising an eyebrow. Doc was a bit hesitant, maybe Xisuma and Keralis really are corrupted, or they were pulling up a horrible prank. Either of the two still sounds horrible.

"Why did you want to know?" The bed sleeper asks the worried looking creeper hybrid. Doc stands up and goes over to his nether portal. "Follow me." He instructs, Bdubs following him with a still confused face. The two of them travel through the Nether hub that they have, Doc passing The Button to Bdubs' surprise. He thought Doc wanted to go to The Button because it was about a.. purple belt? Bdubs didn't question and continues following Doc.

The creeper hybrid went over to Cub's mini pyramid, the portal to his pyramid inside. The two Hermits went under the trap door and into the small pyramid where the portal to Cub was at. They go through the portal and was greeted by Cub who was coincidentally going to go through the portal as well. "Woah– hey you two. What'd you come here for?" He asks the two, tilting his head to the side.

"Cub, how's the sheep doing?" Doc questions, walking over to the chambers where the sheep were. Cub looks over at Bdubs and raises an eyebrow at him to silently question him. Bdubs only shrugs and shakes his head. "The sheep are doing fine. But–"

Cub takes out his journal just as Doc was now staring at the two sheep they were experimenting. One sheep has a bunch of glitches and full glowing purple eyes, the other one was the same but has lesser glitches and lesser glowing from its eyes.

"What.." Doc mutters out, looking at the two sheep with confusion. Bdubs' eyes widened at the two sheep in front. Cub nods and hands him the journal he was holding. "If you flip to page 4 it's where you can find the effects of the purple.. virus thing. I call them symptoms just because it would suit the whole virus name." He says, feeding wheat to the smaller normal sheep in the other chamber. Doc flips the journal to page number four, as Cub says, it was filled with observations of the sheep.

"Day 1  
Sheep are all looking the same, will update when something new happens

Day 3  
Tried feeding the "infected" sheep, immediately attacked me. I fed the sheep yesterday but didn't attack me unlike this day.

Day 4  
The "infected" sheep now has glowing purple eyes, the glitches of the first infected sheep we found has grown just a bit more worse.

Day 5  
The "infected" sheep now has glitches on him. Very few unlike the other one, full of glitches and eyes glowing like crazy.

Symptoms:  
•Turns mobs into a purple color.  
•Turns very aggressive for no reason after 3 days.  
•Glowing purple eyes on mobs after 4 days.  
•Gets glitches and very glitchy like effects after 5 days."

Doc looks at this, shocked and even more concerned about his two other friends, Xisuma and Keralis. Bdubs was so confused, he was reading with Doc beside him as he tries to understand what was going on. "Hey.. Cub?" Doc calls out, handing him back the journal.

Cub nods, signaling him to ask his question as he keeps the journal back in his inventory. "Do you.. ever wonder if this has an effect on us? The other Hermits?" The GOAT Father asks, hesitantly, looking at Cub worriedly. Cub's and Bdubs' eyes widens at this, not ever thinking about that.

"Y-You don't think– oh no." Bdubs looks around frantically, panicking a little. "What's going on?" Cub asks, not knowing why Bdubs and Doc are panicking about a simple theoretical question.

Doc and Bdubs look at each other, Doc nods at Bdubs to tell Cub his story to explain what's going on. "A week ago, Xisuma was acting really aggressive to everyone lately. Doc and I went up to him to try and confront him about it but he attacked me. And just recently, yesterday I went over to Keralis' base to ask him about something but instead he threatened me with a bow and told me to leave. Both of their belts were purple." Bdubs explains, his fiddling his fingers in a slight panic and nervous break down.

Doc looks to the side and crosses his arms. "I really do hope they're just pranking us. This is really starting to concern me. We won't know what they're capable on doing." He mutters out, holding himself a little tighter. Cub was just beyond shocked by this news, he opened his journal and wrote something inside of it with his signature quill. He looks up at the two and sighs.

"We're going to go see them."

"R-Right now?"

"Right now."


	5. Don't Talk To Us Ever Again

"Doc! Bdubs! Hurry up!" Cub calls out from in front of the cowmercial district portal, waiting impatiently for Doc and Bdubs to catch up. Once they do they immediately went through the portal and slowly climbed down the platform. "Why are we here and not at Xisuma's or Keralis' base?" Bdubs asks, extremely confused.

Doc nods along, wanting to ask the same question. Cub leads the way and walks over to Xisuma and Keralis' work in progress concrete shop. "They have a shop together remember? We might find them working together here. We can't miss them." He states, carefully looking around to see if the two of them, or one of them are around.

Doc and Bdubs follow Cub nervously, the three of them worrying for their friends. As they near closer to the concrete shop that Team Bee is working on, they could see two figures near the shop, building away and mining, digging away unwanted land. Cub was right, they are here. Cub was the first one to approach them, putting on trusty gloves from his inventory for precautions.

"Xisuma, Keralis. What a coincidence to see the whole Bee Team working together!" He smiles and crosses his arms. Doc and Bdubs just grew more nervous at this, they went to the sides of Cub's and pulls on a fake smile on their faces.

Xisuma looks at the three, it seems his facial expression can't be read. He has a bandana covering his eyes in front of his already covering-face helmet. Doc was a bit confused by this, Xisuma has never done this so why now? "Didn't I tell you to leave me alone?" Xisuma says, his voice even deeper and contorted from before they talked to him.

Bdubs backs away a little, looking away from them. Doc and Cub stayed put, a little shocked but not enough to be scared by him. Cub pulls out his journal and started writing, glancing up at Doc as a signal to say something. "We just wanted to question you two some questions." Doc says, coming up with a random explanation for why they're here. Cub nods and looks up from his journal.

Keralis rolls his eyes at this and sighs. "Just get it over with." He mutters out, loud enough for everyone in the group to hear. His muttering was a bit off, his voice has also become deep and slightly contorted. Bdubs clears his throat, wanting to ask the two a question.

"S-So- are you two pranking us?" He stutters out the first part, tilting his head at the two, now very rude Hermits in front of him. Xisuma and Keralis looked at each other and chuckles together in their now deeper voices.

The other three watches them laugh, thinking that this may really be a prank. Xisuma and Keralis look back at the other three Hermits with a serious expression. "What prank?" Keralis asks them, tilting his head to the side.

"Oh yeah, it's definitely a prank." Doc thinks to himself as he crosses his arms. "The prank you two are doing with you two getting very aggressive at us for no reason. Your deep voices. It's not very funny." Bdubs raises his voice a little, glaring at the two Hermits in front of them.

Xisuma looks at Bdubs, with his bandana still covering his eyes. "And we think that you, questioning us that this is a prank is not very funny as well." He spits out, getting ready to pull out his sword if this conversation grows any longer.

Cub rubs his temples and glares at Team Bee his mouth opening for him to say something. "We're trying to make you two cooperate here. Just say the truth, is it a yes or a no? Are you two pranking the server?" Doc finally asks, beating Cub of speaking first. He shuts his mouth shut and just nods, agreeing to Doc's words.

"No." Keralis growls, rolling his big eyes at the three other Hermits again. "Why would we even prank you in the first place? It's just going to be a waste of time." He continues, his voice still very deep and raspy unlike his normal calm and collected voice.

Doc glares at the two, his hands clenching into fists as he starts getting quite mad. Cub nervously glances at Doc and finally clears his throat. "Is that the full truth?" He asks the two, raising an eyebrow at them. Team Bee groans in sync, feeling really bothered and annoyed by even the presence of the three other Hermits.

"Yes, now can you go?!" Xisuma almost yells, almost having enough with whatever is happening. Keralis pulls out his bow and points it at Cub. This made Bdubs really upset, very mad. He walks in front of the two with a glare that could kill. "What is wrong with you two?! We're asking very simple, polite questions and all you do is push us away, acting like we weren't even friends at all! Where.. where's the Xisuma and Keralis I know?!" He got the courage to say all that, his chest aching as he said all of those words, yelling all of those words, in front of his two friends.

Doc and Cub were shocked, just earlier he was looking very nervous and worried, but now he looks braver than the two of them. Xisuma and Keralis both look at each other, then back at Bdubs.

Keralis shoots an arrow, the arrow flying just past Bdubs' face almost hitting him. Bdubs froze in place, it was like he was having a deja vu experience. "We told you to get lost!" Xisuma yells out, taking off the bandana on his helmet as he glares at the three. Doc saw everything unfold in slow motion.

There it is.

Doc's thoughts were right, Xisuma is corrupted. The once fully healthy, friendly admin's eyes, were glowing purple. Xisuma wasted no time and took out his sword, cutting the skin Doc's arm. The GOAT father yelps at the sudden pain, backing away and taking out a sword of his own.

Keralis was shooting arrows towards Bdubs and Cub, the two carefully avoiding and dodging them. The three Hermits were in a panic, they needed to get out, they weren't ready for this. The three of them backed away from Team Bee, already scared of what might happen next.

Team Bee glares, their weapons out. Doc goes in front of Cub and Bdubs, his sword ready to take action and slice anyone or anything, even if he himself has been cut by Xisuma's sword. Anger clearly evident on the GOAT father's eye as he watches the two.

Keralis glares then puts his bow away, rolling his eyes and putting on a fake smile. Xisuma then sighs and ties his bandana back on to his helmet. "Look, guys, sure. This is all a prank. Whatever. Just leave. This will be the last time we tell you so." He says, putting his sword away as well.

"We're advising you. Don't you ever come talk to us again. We already did enough." Keralis mutters out, walking away to the llamas that the two bought together, tending to them and getting out some blocks from the chests they were carrying. Cub looks up and back down on his journal, writing away. Bdubs' eyes were glossy, he was very much panicking from what just happened between them.

Doc puts his sword away and grunts, rolling his eye. "You heard them. Let's go. You two better fix those attitudes of yours. Especially you, Xisuma. You're an admin. You should not be causing this much drama, trouble in the server or in our friendships alone." He glares daggers at the two before walking away from them. Cub and Bdubs looks at Doc walking away and back at Team Bee.

Team Bee then continues doing what they were doing before the three even showed up. Cub sighs and pats Bdubs' shoulder before catching up with Doc. Bdubs follows them, quickly catching up with the two. Doc grunts again, holding his bleeding arm.

"Ah- Doc we should get you home." Bdubs suggests, pulling out his old red bandana and tying it tightly around the bleeding cut. Doc shakes his head but hisses out once his cut got pressure put on it. "I'm fine- plus we need to discuss what happened and the virus-"

Cub cuts him off while shaking his head. "We'll just discuss it back at your base, your arm needs patching up." He says, dismissing the topic. Bdubs smiles and leads the way back to Doc's base. The three went through the Nether portals again, now back at Doc's base. They went downstairs to Doc's basement, Doc sitting down on a chair while Bdubs went to go grab some medical supplies.

"So, his eyes." The GOAT father starts, looking at the pharaoh worriedly. Cub nods and sits down on another chair as he writes down on his journal. Bdubs came back with his medical supplies and starts disinfecting Doc's cut. "We're not sure yet if the virus actually got to him. Maybe he just updated his look, his "skin" one would say." Cub says, putting the journal away and then looks at Doc.

Doc nods slowly, looking away. "He said it was a prank too. Might only be out of force so we can get out." He mutters, Bdubs now bandaging the moderately cut on Doc's arm.

Cub chuckles and looks at the two. "Today was a rollercoaster ride." He states out, crossing his arms. Doc chuckles back, Bdubs finally finishing bandaging as he also laughs.

"Haha, yeah."


	6. Nine Weeks

Doc stares at the distance from his base, his arm fully healed from the fight they had that was nine weeks ago. Nine weeks. Nine weeks since the whole Xisuma and Keralis being mean. Nine weeks since Xisuma and Keralis almost killed their own friends. Nine weeks since the whole yelling, the whole aggressive side to them. Nine weeks. Doc hasn't seen that many people in these nine weeks.

No Xisuma, no Keralis, and not a word from other Hermits. There's been a few "hi"s and "hello"s here and there whenever people see each other in the shopping district or anywhere else. Other than that it's been very quiet. Seems like everyone was busy with their bases, projects, machinery and such. It's quiet. Doc quite liked the quietness of the server, it was a nice change, it would mostly be chaos everywhere. He sort of misses it, but if nine weeks is the limit of the quietness, then he'll gladly take those nine weeks.

Doc sighs and looks up to the sky. He admits it, it's been too quiet, he misses the chaos. He even seems suspicious of the quietness. Nine weeks? By now Grian would have started a war. By now the Boomers would have helped someone with blowing things up. By now everyone would have been hyped up for whoever got the first red belt.

"It's been awfully quiet lately. Too quiet.."

What exactly happened in these nine weeks? Let's start with ZombieCleo.

Or, well, Cleo for short. Cleo built her zoo for all of the animals that she needs and takes care of them from time to time. She has a bunch of animals, mobs, to say the least. She's aware of the purple animals that's been going on and on. She's been wearing gloves when taking care of her animals. But, the one time she didn't use them, she touched a cow, a slowly turning purple cow.

She was feeding the cow and was a bit stubborn with eating, she forgets her gloves, now focusing on feeding that one cow. Cleo finally got the cow fed, sighing out and giggling during that intense fight. She saw the cow was purple and let out an "Ohhh", now realizing why the cow was very stubborn. She shrugs it off (not noticing her hair turning purple), Cub didn't really tell anyone that the Hermits can get infected as well. Cleo continues feeding her animals, luring the infected animals to a separate side of her zoo.

Everything was fine until a week later. One week down and she was growling a lot like an zombie would. She distances herself from the other Hermits, locking herself up, thinking it's just another zombie sickness that she normally has. She keeps herself busy in her base, chewing items and munching on.. food. That was 8 weeks ago.

While Cleo was in her base all locked up, there was another Hermit having the same problem as her. Stressmonster101, or well, Stress for short. Stress continues pursuing her witch farms and potion making. It's been a mess for her but is still really determined to get her shop up and running. She checks to see her witch farm is once in a while, talking to them like the bean she is.

Apparently one of her witches got infected and Stress was accidentally thrown a potion by one of them. She panicked a little, screaming at no one then calms down. She giggles to herself after that small little panic and let's her witch farm run. Not noticing her orange flower crown slowly turning purple. Stress flies back to her base to work on her stocks, humming to herself.

Iskall85, or well, Iskall for short, visits her after that day and laughs at her. Stress asks what Iskall was laughing about, giggling a bit to herself as well because of how contagious Iskall's laughs were. Iskall points out that her belt, well, flower crown was purple and makes fun of it.

Stress takes her flower crown off of her and sure enough, Iskall was telling the truth. She yells at Iskall and hits him playfully, giggling a bit and blaming him for her flower crown turning purple. Iskall rolls his eyes and compliments her crown being purple at how it suits her. Stress giggles and shrugs, putting it back on her head, the two after a while parting ways. That was 7 weeks ago.

VintageBeef, or well, Beef for short was one of the Hermits that had the same fate as the previous two. Being the "llamadad" that he is, owning a bunch of llamas and breeding a bunch of llamas, there's no doubt that some of his llamas has got the small "virus" as well.

Beef just went through the Nether Portal to the shopping district. Checking his llama shop and going to go breed some of his llamas as well. He went to go check on Brian, his llama mascot, to see if Keralis has bought him but the only thing he saw was Brian's fluffy furr looking purple. Beef groans and pats Brian's back, telling Brian, his boy, that he's been infected.

Beef huffs, not noticing that his belt was slowly turning purple. He hums to himself as he let's Brian free, now going into the back room of his llama shop, luring the llamas out of the shop that were infected and letting them free. Beef immediately goes back to his base, worried that Matilda might also be infected. He checks on her with her other llama friends and sure enough, Matilda was also infected.

Beef panics a little but then sighs, crossing his arms and thinks of what to do with Matilda. He just leaves her there, hugging her one last time before walking off to build more things to his base. That was 6 weeks ago.

Ethoslab, Etho as everyone calls him by, one of the redstone mechanics of Hermitcraft. Despite him being a skilled redstone mechanic and a rather skilled sword user as well, he was up in some sort of trouble. He was out gathering some resources for his next project and he forgot to bring torches with him, as it turned dark he wasn't able to get back to his base in time. He sighs to himself, cursing to himself to get torches or at least coal next time.

Etho went through the plains biome and started slashing through the zombies that was approaching him. Being the secret assassin was a bit handy, his sword slashing through the zombies easily. Blocking arrows from skeletons, slashing through spiders and carefully killing creepers before they blow up. He might have done a bit of an accident at some point.

Etho accidentally dropped his sword, letting a zombie hit him which didn't affect him greatly. He quickly picks up his sword and kills it immediately, his eyes widening a bit in shock when he saw the blood of the zombie was purple. He shakes his head, remembering the infection that Scar told everyone about and carefully avoids the Zombie's purple blood. What he didn't know is that his bandana was already starting to turn purple despite him not participating in The Button game. That was 5 weeks ago.

Ah, Zedaph. He's one of the most wholesome Hermits in Hermitcraft. With him loving sheep and always trying out new things. He didn't really mind the infected purple sheep and actually thought they were cool. He made sure not to feed them with any wheat or any other things he has to feed them with like what Scar said to the Hermits.

Zedaph didn't mean to, zombies started randomly spawning in his base for some reason. He got his torches out and started placing them around, accidentally bumping into a sheep that he accidentally let in his base. He apologizes like the Zedaph we know, and chuckles to himself. He stops in his tracks when he notices his top slowly turning purple. He shrugs, not minding it, liking the color purple on himself and thought he would just change after a bit. That happened 4 weeks ago.

Unfortunately, Bdubs had the same fate as the others. Despite his cautious actions around the infected mobs, he hadn't noticed that one of his beloved horses were also infected. After finishing a build in his village of some sorts of course he just has to stroll around his village with one of his horses in the barn he built. He grabs the horse that was displayed out of his barn and started strolling around.

Though after some time of strolling around the village, the horse started squirming randomly and neighing uncontrollably. Bdubs immediately got off the horsey, as he would call it, and tied it to a nearby fence post. He got worried and started scanning his horse. Sure enough, he noticed purple streaks of hair on its mane. He started panicking a little as he also notices his belt turning purple. He calms down and starts patting the horse as he pulls out his communicator and tells Cub about what happened.

Cub asks him a couple of questions of: if he's feeling off, if he's feeling very aggressive. Bdubs said no to every question, Cub told Bdubs was fine and would often ask him questions in the next few weeks. Unfortunately, in the next week, Bdubs was feeling really cranky. He lied to Cub's questions that was thrown at him and even sometimes forgot about responding. Cub wasn't too worried, simply because he thought that he's just busy, which wasn't true at all.

All of that's happening until today, where Doc was standing in his base and wondering why the server has been so silent. Then his communicator pinged at him. He reached his hand out into his pocket and saw a message that sent shivers down his spine.

"Cubfan135: Doc. Something's happening in the commercial district. Come over here. Now."


	7. Everything Was A Disaster

Doc stood there, looking at the message on his communicator. He put his communicator in his pocket and glanced at his Nether Portal. He was, scared. Surprisingly enough for the savage creeper hybrid, he was indeed scared. That message Cub sent sent shivers down his spine and only discouraged him to go to the Commercial District.

Whatever's happening there, Doc needed to be there. That's what he told himself. With his feet moving with hesitance, he forces his feet to move over to his Nether Portal. His mind was practically running in circles when he stepped foot into the Nether Hub.

The Nether Hub was the same as always, bedrock ground, many other silly structures like the Green Team treehouse, the Green Team waiting area, Purp Belt Cloob Hoos and of course The Button. He took a glance at all of the silly builds the Hermits did and then shook his head. He wasted no time before racing over to the Commercial District's nether portal, quickly going through it. He closed his eyes and braced himself for whatever he was going to see.

He hoped to himself that Cub was pranking him with the other Hermit on it as well. He hoped to himself that this was just a joke. He slowly opened his eyes once he was through the portal. Doc immediately stopped in his tracks. The sight before him made his skin pale. 

Everything was a disaster.

The concrete shop that Xisuma and Keralis partnered up to build with was in flames, ruins. The other shops were in total flames, the town hall was blown up. Doc let out an exasperated sigh and took a step back. He looked around and took sight in what else there was to offer.

Hermiton Herald was also in flames, Shade-E-E-s was in ruins, most of the mushrooms weren't doing too good. Suddenly, Doc felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked over and saw the normally pharaoh Cub, now in a full bodysuit of some sort. He hands Doc a bodysuit of his own and mouthed "put it on" to Doc.

Cub looks away and drops down to the ground of the commercial district. Doc put on the bodysuit that Cub handed him with visible confusion on his face. He drops down as well and follows Cub. "Doc, look over there." Cub states, making Doc look over what Cub was pointing at and sure enough, he could see two figures in the distance.

Doc takes a step forward and his face drops at the sight of the two figures. It was Xisuma and Keralis, sitting on top of the ruined town hall with TnT in their hands.

"Wh– are they responsible for this?!" Doc yells out all of the sudden, getting out his bow from his inventory and ready to fire at one of them. Cub nods and looks at the top of the town hall, scared of his friends. False who was there with them went beside Doc and grabbed his arm to stop him from shooting. "Don't. I've tried already, the arrows just glitch through them." She says, glaring at the two and then to her quiver on her back. She was also in a bodysuit, a diamond chestplate also was attached to her for extra gear.

"Falsie– guys, we HAVE to do something about this, this is outrageous!" Doc groans out, pulling his elytra out and putting it on, rocket in one hand and his sword in the other. False did the same thing and took out one of her swords.

Cub looked at the two in shock, he opened his mouth to say something but it was too late. The two had already flown off to where Xisuma and Keralis was. Cub had no choice but to follow the two in case they get hurt. He put on his elytra and grabbed his rockets to give himself a boost before flying over to them, catching up with a worried expression on his face.

"Xisuma! Keralis! What the hell?! This is the shopping district, everyone gets their diamonds here and spends loads of time here!" Doc yells at the two for a start once they all land in front of them on top of the town hall's almost destroyed roof.

Xisuma and Keralis slowly look at Doc, they were really scary looking. Xisuma had a lot of glitches on him. His eyes behind that helmet of his was full on glowing purple. Keralis on the other hand had a lot of glitches as well, not as much as Xisuma. Keralis had big glowing purple eyes which were more terrifying than his already terrifying normal big eyes.

Doc took a step back when he saw their appearances, he glances at False and shoot her a worrisome look. "We told you to never come back!" Xisuma yells, his voice contorted and broken. Keralis shoots a bow towards False, his eyes looking very angry. Cub took a step forward and looked at them straight in the eyes.

"Guys, this isn't you! Please let us help you fix yourselves, you've been infected by the virus and—" He was cut off by Xisuma throwing his sword right next to Cub's face which made his eyes widen. False immediately reacted and sliced through Xisuma's arm, only for it to glitch out and go through his arm.

False's eye widened and gulped. "I— Oh no–" Keralis shot False with his bow, she quickly reacted and moved to the side. Doc tried again and sliced through Keralis, only for it to glitch through like what happened with Xisuma.

"Agh! We can't do anything!" Doc groaned out and backed away from them immediately. Cub looked at everyone in front of him before taking out his TnT and flint and steel. He places the TnT down in front of Xisuma and Keralis and lights the TnT up, quickly grabbing False's and Doc's hands and jumping down the rundown town hall.

Xisuma and Keralis didn't react quickly, they both get blown up. Cub looks up at the more blown up town hall and sees that Xisuma and Keralis are still standing. Doc groaned and looked up at them in anger. "What are we going to do with them! They're gonna destroy the server!" He yells, glancing at Cub and False and then to Xisuma and Keralis.

Xisuma whistles, Keralis smirks and laughs a bit, jumping down in front of Doc, False and Cub. The three stared at Keralis while backing away, before they knew it, lots of glitched purple Drowns were popping out of the water and walking over to them.

"We run!" False says, she grabed Cub's and Doc's hands and runs with them to the portal. They went through, avoiding the sudden Drowns. Doc got angry and let go of False's hand.

He rubs his temples and looks at the two running away. "Guys this is very cowardly of us!" He exclaimed, crossing his arms and glaring at the two. Cub and False look back at Doc, their face uncertain. False sighs and nods, looking down and crossing her arms as well.

Cub looked at the two and furrowed his eyebrows. "We can't do anything to get them to listen to us or hurt them. You already saw what happened, they had an army of Drowns ready! We can't blow them up, shoot them or slice through them. We need a plan, a better plan than trying to fight them without a clue how to even beat them down or how to make them listen to us! They're still our friends, this isn't them, it's this stupid virus that's in them. We need to at least do what's best for them, for our friends." He huffs out, finishing his last sentence his eyes still focused on his two friends.

False looks at Cub, and then to Doc, then she smiles. "You're, you're right." She smiles and looks over to Doc who was still processing all of this. He sighs and smiles softly and nods. "Yeah. Yeah, this is for our friends." He nods and turns to Cub. "What do we do now, Cub?" He asks, False joining up next to him and tilting her head. Cub looks around and notices a ghast incoming, he let's the two know that there's a ghast. They all run over to the part of the nether hub where no portals can be seen.

Doc looks at the two and nods walking a bit father until he stops. "We need to start fresh. We need to go somewhere where they can't see us for awhile, somewhere where there isn't that much infected mobs, gather everyone who hasn't been infected. We need a base to plan everything and gather all of our resources." He says, smiling. He was excited to start from scratch again and work with people.

Area 77 was successful with Scar and all really fun while also staying true to their words. Now that it's happening again, he can't wait, especially if more Hermits are joining them. Cub nods and builds a portal in front of them, lighting it up and going through.

False and Doc follow suit and they all are now in a thick forest, not even a single Hermit base, Hermit build in sight. Cub smiles and turns to them.

"Write down the coordinates of this place and send a private message to everyone that's online. This is our retreat place until we think of a plan." False says, setting down a block to mark the area. Doc sends out messages to people in an urgent matter, he looks up to the two and nods. The three of them smile at each other and scramble away to get resources for their base.

They were going to get their friends back.


	8. Iskall and Mumbo

"Iskall? Where are you at?"

"Mumbo? I'm at my industrial area dude, what's up?"

"Did you receive a message from Doc?"

"..No, I was working on my farm."

Mumbo Jumbo heard laughter from the other line of his communicator. He looks around, very nervous about that one single message that Doc sent to him. Mumbo kept looking back to the message that he received and he had a lot of mixed emotions. Was he sad? Surprised? Panicked? Angry? Worried? All these thoughts were spiraling in Mumbo's head like he was being hypnotized.

He looked at the message he received from Doc again. He could read it out fine but it all still doesn't make sense to him. Coordinates. Why were there coordinates? Base? Secret base? New secret base for everyone to be safe? Shopping District's blown up? Xisuma and Keralis? The shopping district was in chaos because of them? They were.. infected? Symptoms, find others who aren't infected.. Wear the most protective armor you can find? Avoid all purple infected mobs at all costs? Is this a prank by Doc? What's actually going on? Why did Doc send a message to him? Why did he even call Iskall? Has he been standing in his base for 2 minutes straight and saying nothing?

"What's going on, dude? You haven't said a word for about two whole minutes now, it's getting pretty awkward dude." Iskall suddenly says from the other line of Mumbo's communicator. The sudden voice almost made Mumbo jump, he was so lost in thought that he forgot why he called Iskall.

Mumbo laughs nervously and let's out a fake cough. "Okay, Doc sent me a message about the shopping district getting blown up." He starts off, immediately getting cut off by Iskall shouting "What?!" on the other side of the line. Mumbo laughs at this and looks around his base, he couldn't think of something to say or do. "Yeah, it's– it's all blown up because of Xisuma and Keralis." He finally says after almost making another awkward silence session. Iskall was silent.

"Xisuma? Keralis? Blowing up the shopping district? That doesn't make sense." He says through the line, very confused sounding. Mumbo can't blame him, he was confused and really scared as well. "I-I know! It's really unbelievable." He replies to him, now fiddling with his communicator. Iskall sighs on the other line. "Mumbo, if this is a prank–"

"Iskall it's not a prank. The message looked really, really urgent." Mumbo cut him off before saying anything. Then.. silence. "Hey, Iskall. Can we meet at your industrial area?" Mumbo asks, hoping that Iskall would agree with him. Iskall was silent on the other line for a few seconds before saying, "Sure." Mumbo thanks Iskall before hanging up the call. He takes in a shaky breath and afterwards immediately acted.

Mumbo immediately grabbed his important stuff, making sure to get geared up fully before going into his nether portal. He looks around the nether hub and his eyes widened at something he wish he didn't see.

There were purple pigmen everywhere, purple blazes and purple ghasts floating around. Mumbo was surprised, he thought the Nether hub was mob proofed. He stood there not realizing that one of the ghasts were already firing fire balls at him.

Mumbo being the spoon he is clumsily dodged the fireball, his eyes widened more, surprised that he didn't get hit. He ran, he ran towards the portal of where Iskall and his industrial area is at. He ran like his life depended on it.

He was still getting chased, still dodging the fireballs like some sort of miracle is happening to him. Mumbo was sweating a lot, his legs almost giving out because of the amount of adrenaline he was feeling. He felt like his took longer. Way longer than the times he normally goes to the portal they have.

Mumbo gives out a huge sigh of relief when he sees the correct portal to the industrial area just right ahead. At least he thinks it's correct, his eyes are watery and made his vision blurry. Normally he wouldn't be panicking this much, normally he would handle it like a spoon and actually get hit by these creatures.

But at a time like this, where just earlier he received a message, a strict message, that he should avoid infected mobs at all costs made him panic. Made him feel a lot of adrenaline and pressure.

Mumbo's legs went as fast as he can go to the portal right ahead of him and wasted no time to go inside the portal, hoping that it was the correct portal. He sighs in relief when he recognizes the creeper farm that Iskall build with the giant creeper breaking through a building.

Mumbo sees Iskall up ahead, working on his sugar cane farm. "Iskall! Oh thank goodness! You're here! I'm here! Oh my god that was so stressful!" He almost yells, running up to him in a panic. Iskall looked at Mumbo and tilts his head, coming down to him to comfort him. "You look like you just got out of a horror house dude!" Iskall says, laughing.

Mumbo looked at Iskall with this horrified face. He put his hands on Iskall's shoulders. "It felt like it! Iskall the Nether Hub is filled with purple pigmen, ghasts and blazes—!" Iskall stopped him right there and took Mumbo's hands off of him. "Woah, woah. I thought the Nether Hub was mob proofed." He says, looking at Mumbo straight in the eye.

Mumbo looked away, his adrenaline rush still there. "T-That's what I thought too! But all of them were purple and their fireballs were purple! I had to run over to the portal, run for my life, to get here!" He almost yelled out again, freaking out.

Iskall snickers at Mumbo and takes him to a seat, offering him water which he gladly took. "Chill out you spoon. Why didn't you just use your elytra and rockets?" Iskall asked, snickering yet again. Mumbo looks at the bottle of water in his hand at to Iskall.

"For goodness sake, I'm so stupid." He facepalms with his free hand, groaning. Iskall laughs at him, almost tearing up. Mumbo rolls his eyes and smiles before drinking the water bottle that Iskall have him. Then he frowns after drinking.

He was more calm than before but he remembered the message Doc sent. "Um.. yeah, about the message, Iskall." Mumbo starts as he pulls out his communicator, tapping on it to get the message from Doc. Iskall looked over Mumbo's shoulder to see his communicator.

The message read out:  
"Docm77: Hey, we're currently at 10645 63 12206. We need you here because we're working on a secret base for everyone to be safe. The shopping district's currently blown up. Xisuma and Keralis are the reason why it's total chaos there. Remember the infected purple mobs? They were infected by the virus. As you go to the coordinates please find others who aren't infected. Wear the most protective armor you can find. Avoid all infected mobs at all costs. See you there."

Iskall read the lines clearly, his face that was a smiley goofy expression now had a serious poker face on. Mumbo glanced over to Iskall to see his expression for just a glimpse. He nods, sighing. "Yeah no, it seems like a serious message." He says, feeling nervous again.

Iskall sighs and looks away. "What is with this virus in the server? Why hasn't Xisuma fixed it? How did it even get here in the first place? It's like a game virus but worse!" He ranted out, frustrated. Mumbo can't blame Iskall being frustrated about this whole situation.

"Do we go..?" Mumbo asks with a small voice and small uncertainty to his tone. Iskall sighs and gathers his important things, getting his protective armor from his ender chest. "We need to." He smiles and offered out his hand over to Mumbo to get him out of his chair.

Mumbo nods and sighs. "Um, they should have a portal there, right? If not maybe we can just grab obsidian and flint and steel. Travel to the nether to get there faster. This looks pretty far." He says, looking at Iskall for confirmation.

Iskall nods and got his weapon out. "Uh, right. Didn't you say you were being chased by ghasts and others in the Nether Hub?" He asks, tilting his head to the side. Mumbo groans and nods. "Yeah, I was.." He says, almost in defeat.

"We need to fight some of them or just fly really fast. I don't think they're able to spawn from that far away." Iskall says, referring to the coordinates in the message. "Yeah, alright, you're right." Mumbo smiles and nods, he grabbed his stuff and prepared his elytra, rockets and weapon.

Iskall takes a step forward near the portal. "Ready?" He asks Mumbo, nearing the portal back to the Nether Hub. Mumbo inhales for a bit and exhales, nodding. "As I'll ever be." He says, smiling to make himself feel better and encourage himself.

Iskall smiles as well. Both were nervous, but they kept their heads up for what's about to come blasting through them. Literally.

They went in at the same time and immediately flew away to the direction of the coordinates that were in the message. Thankfully for them, only one ghast and a blaze managed to spot them but quickly lost track of how fast they were flying.

The both of them glided down to the bedrock floor after a while of flying. Mumbo looked back from where they came. "Why didn't I think of flying before?!" He says, rolling his eyes and facepalms. Iskall laughs and pulls out a water bottle for himself.

"Come on, we need to still keep going, we need to go a few more thousand blocks." Iskall says to Mumbo as he chuckles, looking at his compass to look at the coordinates they were in. Mumbo nods and got his fireworks.

Mumbo and Iskall talked to each other and challenged themselves to not get bored. They kept going with no breaks, which takes a very large kudos to them. Doc probably moved out far just so no infected mobs can get to him. "What a genius he is." Iskall commented on that.

It was a journey, how did Doc manage to go this far out is Mumbo's question to himself. Nevertheless, it was a smart move to move out far of spawn and civilization. It felt like hours until they got to the coordinates in the nether. They got the coordinates by simple divide by eight trick. Since one block in the Nether is equivalent to eight blocks in the overworld.

A quick trick for all of you people out there.

Mumbo and Iskall were surprised to see a portal up ahead. "I think this is it." Mumbo says, too excitedly actually. Iskall rolled his eyes and glided down in front of the portal. Mumbo followed suit and sighs in relief, being in the ground after a while of flying.

Iskall looks at Mumbo, Mumbo looks back at Iskall. They laugh for a bit and finally look at the portal. "I really hope this isn't a prank." Mumbo says before he takes a step in the portal. Iskall follows short after and they were greeted by False, walking in front of a man made hole down to the ground.

False turns around before she can get in the hole and almost jumped. "Oh– geez, Mumbo, Iskall." She says in an instinct. She then walks over to the two men, circling around them. "Belts. Show me your belts." False demands, drawing out her sword to them threateningly.

Mumbo and Iskall obliged. Mumbo had to take off his legging piece of his armor, Iskall just looked at False with his eye, the belt already being on his face. Mumbo had a yellow belt, Iskall has an olive belt. False smiles and puts her sword away.

"You two are the first other guys to arrive. Now I need you two to help me dig out space for the underground base."


	9. Hypno, Ren and TFC

"What happened here–? Hypno, my dude, do you know what happened?"

"I don't know what happened, Ren."

"What about you TFC?"

"No idea either, sorry."

Ren, Hypno and TFC looked at the ruined shopping district. It was a huge mess before, and now it's even more of a mess. Everything was blown up, fire was everywhere, it was a huge disaster in the eyes of the three men.

Hypno sighed and picked up what's left of a shop. "Who– why would someone do this? It can't possibly be a creeper attack. Mobs don't spawn here!" He said, very devastated that the shopping district had to be like this.

TFC nodded, agreeing to Hypno's statement. Ren just frowned, getting his communicator from his pocket to ask the other Hermits about the shopping district. He just noticed that he received a message from Doc. He pulled up Doc's icon and sees a long, serious message from him which sent shivers down his spine.

"Docm77: Hey, we're currently at 10645 63 12206. We need you here because we're working on a secret base for everyone to be safe. The shopping district's currently blown up. Xisuma and Keralis are the reason why it's total chaos there. Remember the infected purple mobs? They were infected by the virus. As you go to the coordinates please find others who aren't infected. Wear the most protective armor you can find. Avoid all infected mobs at all costs. See you there."

At the end of the message, Doc also sent a little message saying:  
"Please be safe. Look out. I know you can do this."

Ren took in a deep breath and looked up to the two other men. "Dudes.. I know what happened. It's– it's a tragedy." He said quietly, still figuring out how to react to the message that Doc sent.

Hypno tilted his head at this. "What happened?" He asked, very curious to know what happened to the server and why the shopping district is in chaos.

Ren took another deep breath. "Did you two get a message from Doc?" He asked curiously. The other two Hermits pulled out their communicators and shook their head at the same time with a polite "no" from TFC.

Ren nodded and showed them Doc's message from his communicator. "Xisuma and Keralis blew up the shopping district. It's not their fault though, it was because the dudes were infected by the purple virus thingy that's happening. Remember when Scar sent out a text?" He explained to the other two Hermits, as he tilts his head to the side.

Hypno and TFC only nodded at Ren, remembering Scar's message from the chat they have through their communicators. Ren pushed his blue sunglasses upwards and looked at them. "Doc and some others moved really far away. By far it'll take us a lot of days to get there. It's the safest thing to do since they don't want anyone else to get infected." He spoke out his opinion to the situation, looking a little nervous.

Hypno and TFC were taking in what Ren just said. They looked at each other with uncertainty on their faces. "Is this a prank?" Hypno asked all the sudden, still very unsure whether they would trust that message.

TFC shook his head at this. "Kid, if it was the shopping district wouldn't of been blown up for some very childish prank." He pointed out, frowning a little at Hypno thinking that this is all a prank.

Ren nodded, taking off his glasses. He sighed shakily, still very nervous about all of this. "So what're we going to do. It was pure coincidence that the three of us met here to be honest." He said, gripping on his glasses.

Hypno nodded, apologizing for assuming such things about calling all of this a prank. He put his hands in his pockets, looking up at the two. "What's our plan now, Ren?" He asked, kicking rubble from the blown up shops.

Ren was a bit nervous for being put up on spot all the sudden. He looked down and put his glasses back on, shrugging. "I.. I don't know um. I'm very worried about the others my dudes, what if they didn't get the message from Doc?" He said nervously, gulping a little.

Hypno shrugged. "I.. we can't really trust finding others now that we know that the virus is spreading quicker and can actually affect us."

TFC sighed and crossed his arms. "The server is a whole mess because of this new virus that happened. The best thing we can do is follow through Doc's words and go over to the coordinates." He said with a determined look on his face.

Hypno smiled at this. "Don't worry Ren. It's a good thing that we came shopping together and told TFC about what happened to the shopping district. We would have been left out during all of this. We can do this" He said, keeping things positive, noticing that Ren suddenly looked nervous.

Ren smiled and nodded. "Alright, get your armor on and weapons out. We're going through the Nether for a faster and a more safer route." He said determinedly, getting his rockets out and putting his elytra wings on.

TFC was excited, he's going to use his wings again. Hypno sighed and walked up to the Nether Portal. "Let's get this over with." He said with a smile as he entered the portal.

The other two then followed, now facing the wrath of the Nether mobs hitting them with all of their might. Ren immediately got his rockets out and flew over to the opposite direction of the hostile nether mobs. The other two tried catching up to Ren.

TFC almost got hit with a fireball by a ghast. Hypno was there to hit the fireball back with his sword. He immediately went back to catching up with Ren, TFC following just behind. That wasn't odd, what was odd was that the fire ball was purple instead of a red-orange color.

They continued their journey, fighting off the mobs chasing them and defending each other. It was an exhausting day for the three of them, very exhausting. Especially for poor TFC but he didn't say anything about it or complain much. He knew they had to do this and get to safety as much as they can.

After a while the three saw a glimpse of an ugly black rectangle in the distance. An unlit portal. They got down to the ground, Ren and TFC looking around for new mobs and Hypno lighting the portal up with his Flint and Steel.

The three immediately went through the portal, panting and sweating from adrenaline. Thank goodness Cub was on the other side of the portal, by other side there was a glass wall in between the three men and Cub.

Cub's eyebrows raised in shock of the three coming out of the portal. He immediately pressed a button from the outside, making his voice go through the speakers. "Ren, TFC, Hypno. Please, stand by, show the ranking of your belts." Cub's voice said through the speakers.

Ren raised an eyebrow at that and showed Cub his green watch and blue glasses. Hypno showed his orange belt, very confused about why they needed to show their ranks. TFC shook his head as if saying he didn't have a belt or rank to show since he hasn't touched The Button.

Cub sighed in relief and dropped the glass shield down with a pull of a lever. "Sorry guys, we have security measures now. After Mumbo and Iskall appearing out of nowhere we weren't sure if the two were infected." He said, leading the three out of the portal room.

It was very understandable for this security measure that needed to be done. Who knew what would happen if they got infected Hermits here. Their whole plan would be ruined and they could potentially be infected themselves. No one needed that.

Cub smiled at the three and nodded. "We were going to have a small meeting anyway. I'm so glad I stopped by here." He said, walking to a seemingly large yet unfinished room. On the other side there was Doc on one of the ends of a large table, False was seated to the left of him and Mumbo sat next to False with Iskall looking like he was comforting Mumbo next to him.

"Hey guys, look who decided to join in our meeting." Cub said, smiling a little as he revealed Ren, TFC and Hypno behind him. Iskall looked up from comforting Mumbo and grinned. "Oh thank goodness, more people that aren't crazy psychopaths!" Iskall exclaimed, laughing his signature laugh.

The others shared a laugh with that joke. As the laughs die down, Cub took a seat on Doc's right. He beckoned the three newcomers to come sit with them.

"Let's start this meeting then."


	10. Impulse and Tango

"Impulse."

"Tango?"

The caffeinated redstsone innovator, ImpulseSV, could hear his mostly chaotic blonde friend, TangoTek, in his base. He certainly wasn't expecting a visit from Tango today but he didn't mind the visit. Not at all, especially if it's a visit from one of his best friends. Though he noticed that there was something wrong with Tango's tone from when he called out his name. He's been with Tango long enough to know that by his serious tone, something was up.

"Well I'm definitely not Salsa." Tango replied with a short, forced chuckle as he went up to where Impulse was at. Tango had flown over to his buddy's base. It wasn't really a lot of work to begin with since their bases are literally one rocket away. But even if it was one rocket away it looked like he's ran a marathon. He looked like he was being chased. Trying to fight off what chased after him. Sweat was gliding down on his temples. The look of horrification was written on his face, despite the fact that his face was already horrifying because of his red eyes. It didn't look like a safe flight. Not at all.

Impulse was working on his base, like always, making it look pretty but he decided to take a break. After thinking about changing the color theme of his base, he really was exhausted from all the replacing of his blocks. He went down to his storage area and realized how much of a pain it was to be there since his storage wasn't that organized. He then was now in his storage system area, trying to sort out his items even if he had an automatic sorting system. He really needed to fix that issue with himself. He built an automatic sorting system yet his storage still isn't sorted. Way to go Impulse.

Tango walked next to Impulse who was just done sorting out one of his many chests. "You really aren't Salsa." Impulse chuckled to himself as he turned his head to look at Tango. "But hey buddy, how have you been?" He asked with his signature smile on his face, tilting his head to the side. His voice always seemed so happy which looked like the opposite of what Tango was about to say to Impulse.

Tango sighed at that and crossed his arms. "Yes I'm clearly all good. Definitely didn't get chased by purple mobs outside. Thank you for being a wonderful observant." He joked again but his tone stayed the same with an eye roll at the end. "I forgot how clueless you are sometimes Impy." He muttered under his breath as he put a hand on his face. Tango smiled a little and took a breath before he looked to the exit of Impulse's base. "I'm very, very relieved to see you here Impulse. You're still green! I mean— Look outside." He gestured his hand over to the outside of Impulse's base.

Impulse only raised an eyebrow at that. Has he been so incredibly busy that he didn't know what was happening with the server? He didn't know what awful shenanigans were happening outside of his base? How long ago has he even seen Tango before anyway? Also, what did Tango mean by "you're still green"? He had so many questions but he had to go look outside. He took a gulp but continued to keep that small smile on his face. Hopefully it was just some prank that the other Hermits pulled on the two of them.

He took an inhale before flying up to his water door entrance with the beautiful grass and greenery. His base seemed untouched but once he looked outside it was chaos. Sure his base is in the middle of an ocean but he could tell something was wrong. Something isn't supposed to be here. It was currently sunset outside but he could tell the water surrounding his base has turned a purple color instead of its normal blue color. Not only that but there were a bunch of purple drowned in the ocean, waiting for Impulse and Tango to drop down and kill them. A ghast somehow got in the overworld as well. This.. looked very bad. Very, very bad.

"What.. happened." Impulse muttered out, shocked about all of this in front of him. He gulped a little and took a step back. He ducked down because of a fire ball coming straight towards the two. He immediately grabbed Tango's wrist and dragged him back in his base. "That's what I asked myself too! We've been so holed up in our bases being busy we didn't ever realize this!" Tango said, rummaging through one of his many pockets and pulling out his communicator with the same message from Doc.

"Docm77: Hey, we're currently at 10645 63 12206. We need you here because we're working on a secret base for everyone to be safe. The shopping district's currently blown up. Xisuma and Keralis are the reason why it's total chaos there. Remember the infected purple mobs? They were infected by the virus. As you go to the coordinates please find others who aren't infected. Wear the most protective armor you can find. Avoid all infected mobs at all costs. See you there. Please be safe. And look out."

Impulse read the message, his eyes mixed with many emotions. He was confused. He was angry, mad even. He was saddened, then he had determination in his eyes at the end. He looked for his own communicator and soon enough he had the same message. He didn't hear a pop up or anything because he had turned its notifications off. He sighed and put it back in his pocket before looking back at Tango.

"Are you saying we should go there? How on Earth are we supposed to go there?" Impulse asked, immediately packing themselves bags full of supplies, food and drinks for themselves. Tango smiled a little at his friend already jumping into action even if he hasn't answered his question. He looked up at Impulse's water elevator to the second floor, where Impulse's portal was. Impulse looked up to Tango from getting themselves supplies, noticing that Tango hasn't answered his questions. He then looked at what Tango was looking at.

"Are you sure the portals are safe Tango?" Impulse asked, double packing a bit more just to be safe for the trip. Tango only shrugged at that. "I mean our portals are all on the roof of the nether, nothing really spawns there right?" He asked, shrugging yet again. Impulse bit the bottom of his lip and tossed Tango his own backpack that he packed himself. "Well.. I suppose that you're right." He said with a smile on his face.

"I'm ready when you are, Tango." Impulse said as he wore his backpack on his back. He waited for Tango patiently. If someone told Impulse exact orders of what to do then he would go ahead and do it. That's how Impulse worked. He was also very patient, another trait that he has that everyone has gotten used to.

Tango looked at Impulse then to the backpack in his hands. He wore it as well and got his elytra and wings. "We gotta write down the cords first right?" He said, getting a piece of paper from one of Impulse's chest like he already knew where it was in the first place. He wrote on the paper the exact coordinates that Doc had told them where to meet up. He kept the pen and paper inside one of his many pockets and nodded. "I'm ready." He said, holding on tight to his backpack.

Impulse nodded as well with a smile. Then he remembered something. "Wait– shouldn't we send a message back to Doc? To let them– whoever there is, know that we're coming—" Tango cut Impulse off by literally dragging him inside the water elevator. Together, they land on the second floor of Impulse's base with his portal and the Phineas machine. "Impulse, the communicators don't work anymore, someone disabled them, dummy. Why do you think I came over here without telling you a thing through the communicator?" He said, rolling his eyes. Impulse chuckled in embarrassment and shook his head. "Sorry, I haven't opened it in a while." He said, shrugging. "I know." Tango said, patting Impulse's back.

Impulse took a step in front of his portal and glanced at Tango with determined eyes. Tango looked back at him and nodded. "Our friends need us. We need them." Impulse said, smiling at Tango. Tango sighed at that and nodded back with a small smile. "Count of three?" He suggested to try and ease the slight tension of fear in the air. Impulse nodded at that, appreciating Tango's best to try and cheer themselves up. He smiled a little.

"1."

"2."

"3."

Then together, they entered the portal. They held on to their swords and backpacks full of valuables. They expected nothing on the other side of the portal. Just the same bedrock floor, portals of other Hermits everywhere and the button, the one that started it all. Though what they didn't expect was the awful amount of pastel purple ghast and purple blaze mobs flying around and immediately shooting them.

"Dodge!" Tango immediately said, running past the mobs and trying to grab his elytra with fireworks. They dodged as much as they can, going in circles and trying not to catch on fire. Darn, Impulse didn't think of bringing a fire resistance potion. They were done for. They were going to be toast, quite literally. Impulse looked at Tango who was playing volleyball with one of the ghasts. He was going to do something stupid but he was going to do it anyway.

"Tango! Get out of here! I'll distract them! Fly away I'll distract them! You have the coordinates!" Impulse called out to Tango as he ran in front of Tango to block the fire balls himself. He's risking his life for a friend. Just so that friend could be safe with his other friends. Another thing with Impulse is that he also helps friends and do good deeds to his friends in anyway. Whether if it's stupid or not, he would still take that risk.

Tango looked in front of him and blinked, seeing Impulse fight himself off and protect him from the large fire balls of the ghasts and the blazes. "I can't leave you here Impulse! It's either we go together or we die together!" He said out of nowhere, breaking out of character. This was an intense situation for him. Too much of an intense situation. He couldn't just leave his friend to die– or worse, become a part of them. He just couldn't.

Impulse shook his head at that. "No Tango! Just go! It's better if one friend shows up to the party than none at all!" He said, throwing a fireball back at the ghast and killing one out of still very many. They couldn't handle these mobs, they were too strong. Impulse had a point. It would be better if one friend shows up done none.

Tango looked at Impulse in horror, hesitating to go. He had already put on his elytra and held on to his backpack and rockets in the other hand. "Just go! Don't worry about me! I'll try to catch up okay? We will meet again. I promise Tango." Impulse said, looking at Tango while fighting off the ghasts and the blazes, getting Tango out of his train of thoughts. There's another thing with Impulse. He's never broken a promise with his friend, even if he did he would try to make up for it. No, he will try to make up for it. Another thing for Impulse is that he keeps his word and will try to resolve the issue in having himself be in the win. When he said go. You will go, anyone would go.

Impulse looked back at his opponents and continued his defending. Tango nodded frantically and stepped away from Impulse fighting the mobs. He went and got his elytra, immediately going in the direction where the coordinates were. Leaving Impulse, the caffeinated redstsone innovator. Leaving his best friend who always wanted to do good deeds. He flew, went in the direction of the coordinates. He was long gone from the many ghasts and blazes, hoping that Impulse is alright.

Tango hoped so much for Impulse's rockets to be heard in the distance, catching up to Tango. Instead he heard silence, just him flying, just his own rockets he's hearing. He felt so guilty but there's one thing that Tango doesn't do. He doesn't cry, he hasn't cried. All he does is laugh, and smile. Laugh with his friends and be confused with his friends. Now his face was serious. Whenever he's upset he would just stay quiet. When he's angry he would rage without a care andd try to reach out to one of his best friends. Either Impulse or Zedaph. But they're not him with him. Not anymore, at least.

Before Tango went over to Impulse's base he went to go check on his other buddy's base that was close by. Zedaph's base. He saw that he wasn't anywhere to be seen in his cave of contraptions so he panicked and immediately went to go check if TFC and Impulse were alright who were also very close by. He was terrified to see that TFC was also nowhere to be found. All his hope was on Impulse.

Now that Impulse just sacrificed himself, Tango was in panic mode. Like his whole mind and body was on autopilot. He was silent all throughout the journey to the coordinates. Going as fast as he can with the remaining rockets that he had until he saw a portal in the middle of nowhere. Yep, that must be it.

Tango landed down in front of the portal and looked at the purple swirls. He told himself that his friends were on the other side, waiting for him. He told himself he was going to get Impulse back, Zedaph back, his other friends back. He has to. He stepped inside the portal. In the other side of the portal there was a glass wall separating the portal area and what seemed like a hallway leading to rooms. It looked like.

After a few seconds of looking around a small alarm sound started going off, signaling the people of the people living here presumably. He stood still, waiting for what's about to happen. Then he saw Doc running up the hallway. He looked like he just woke up from a short nap. He stepped in front of the glass wall and pressed a button.

"Show me your belt rank." Doc's voice could be heard through a small speaker in the room. Tango raised an eyebrow at that and showed Doc his yellow bracelets. Doc sighed in relief and pulled the lever, letting Tango out of the portal area. "Thank you." Tango said, relieved as well that he saw Doc, another Hermit, one of his friends. "If it weren't for TFC waking me up I wouldn't of had heard the alarm going off." He said, chuckling a little as he rubbed his eyes.

Tango's face lit up at the sound of TFC. Oh thank the stars, TFC is alright. He held on to his backpack and nodded at that. "Well sorry for barging in, I definitely didn't get chased by a thousand gigantic purple marshmallows that shoots fireballs." He said, slowly going back to his normal self. Doc rolled his eyes. "It's 10 pm, most of us are already heading to bed." He said, walking down the hallway.

Tango followed Doc close by and nodded. He hugged his backpack that Impulse prepared for him, the last thing that Impulse has done for him other than saving his butt from dying. "Hey. I got some supplies that might be useful." He said to Doc. "Where did you get that?" Doc asked him, turning a left to another hallway which had doors on either side of the walls. "I.. Impulse gave them to me." Tango replied with small hesitance. "Impulse? Then where is he?" Doc stopped walking and turned to Tango with a serious expression.

"He said he's going to catch up but.. all I know is that I want to get him here with us, along with everyone else that disappeared."


	11. What Else Can We Do?

Cub sighed as he picked up the cup of coffee from the oak plank table where various papers and pens were scattered around filled with scratched information. He tapped his fingers on the table as lifted the cup of coffee to his lips to take a sip with his other hand. He looked at his cyber hybrid friend, Doc, pacing around the white quartz walled lab they were in. He could hear Doc's heavy footsteps against the cyan terracotta floor as he continued to pace around the room. Cub put his cup of coffee back down on the table and stared down at the floor. It looked like the two of them were deep in thought.

"Doc, what else can we do? We've tried everything." Cub complained, rubbing his eyes tiredly. They made sure Tango had settled in his new shared room with TFC, Hypno and Ren last night. After that they settled down in their lab and started brainstorming all night long how to find the cure for the purple virus that's ruining their lives, their normal chaotically peaceful lives. They thought of glitches, even hacks that they used to have but is now fixed. They thought of everything that their brains could think of but it all lead to nothing.

Doc sighed at that and shook his head. "I don't know." He said, looking at all of the papers on the table that had a bunch of scratched out plans. The same paper with their same ideas that didn't quite work out with the virus. Their same ideas that wouldn't help save their friends at all. Doc felt so guilty. All his other hacks and tricks didn't work out. He's not one to make cures and antidotes. He's never tried to make one. All of his doings were for pranks and chaos. Then it lead him to wonder if all of this was caused by him being a madlad.

A knock on the iron door of the lab interrupted the two scientist's thoughts. The two of them continued to stay still for a minute, letting the knocking sound on the door echo throughout the lab. "Hey! Can you two open this up? I only have two hands and I can't carry your guys' breakfast for too long!" Tango's voice came through from the other side of the iron door. Cub looked at the door and got up from his oak wood chair over to where the door was. He pulled the lever next to the door and smiled tiredly at Tango who was holding a tray that had two plates of food on top with his one hand.

"I didn't know we had a butler in the base." Cub joked with that same tired smile on his face. He stepped to the side to let Tango inside the white quartz lab that was a bit messy. Tango just rolled his eyes at that. "Yeah yeah. You're welcome master." He said sarcastically as he played along with Cub's silly joke. Tango put the tray of food down on the table after pushing away the scratch papers to the side. "TFC wanted me to deliver this to you guys since you're so busy with your work or whatever." He said, shrugging as he looked at the two.

Doc just nodded at that with a small smile, seeing other Hermits, his other family, do good deeds for them warms his heart. Especially at a time like this. He may be a scary, intimidating madlad scientist but he surely does have a huge heart deep inside. Cub picked up his mug of coffee and took another sip from it. "That TFC is a huge sweetheart." He said after finishing up the rest of his coffee. Tango looked between the two of his scientist friends and raised an eyebrow. "Did you two even get enough sleep? You two look like depressed Koalas." He said, crossing his arms at the two.

Doc and Cub looked at each other and then looked back to Tango. Both of them, in unison said, "No." Being brutally honest with Tango and themselves. Tango just sighed at that, shaking his head. He wasn't going to scold them for staying up. In fact it seemed like no one else in the base had gotten a good night's rest. Not when there's a virus spreading outside and could danger their friends. Or maybe it had already infected their friends. The best they could do was hope that there's still their other friends out there who's not infected.

Tango sighed and shook his head at that. "What were you two doing anyway?" He asked as he took some of the papers on the table they had as he sat down on one of the chairs there. Cub didn't reply and sat back down on his previous seat to eat his breakfast that was made for him. Doc sat down next to Tango and got his fork to poke at his food. "We already told you last night that we're going to try and find some way to make a cure." He said, rubbing his normal eye before eating his breakfast as well.

Tango nodded as he read through what they were up to last night and tried to read their sloppy 3 am handwriting. They looked intriguing and looked like they might work. Like the one Doc wrote down that had glitches and hacks along with it. He was about to say that this particular method might work but then he continued reading. Right. They noticed that the glitches and hacks were fixed when they tried it. They all tried every possible one it seemed like. Xisuma must have put patches in the server's database or whatever that admin did.

Tango continued reading through their failed experiment, already having read the journal logs by Cub that he borrowed last night. At least he had a bit of knowledge of whatever the virus was. He bit the inside of his cheek, his brain storming through thoughts so he could try and help those two depressed scientist racoons. Meanwhile Cub already finished his meal and laid his head down on top of his crossed arms on the table. Doc was looking over Tango's side to see what he was reading as he continued to slowly eat his food.

Tango's head clicked. He had an idea and it might be a very stupid one. He inhaled and looked at the two. "Have you two tried magic?" He asked the both of them. Doc only raised an eyebrow at that while Cub looked up from his arms with a small chuckle. "Haha, very funny Tango–" "No I'm serious. Have you two tried magic? Or some sort of ificators?" Tango cut Cub's words off with his short yet sounding serious statement. Cub and Doc looked at each other then back to Tango who just shook their head. Tango smiled at that. "Alright it's either we get something magical from the server to somehow turn this virus around and get our friends back or we make some sort of gun-ificator that blasts out the cure for the virus to our friends!" He said confidently.

Tango may sound and look like he's joking but he's not at all kidding. He may joke around with his friends and leave them behind to deal with their own things alone but rest assured that he will always come back. Always be there for them and help them in anyway possible. Even if his ideas are very chaotic, he means well. And hey, most of his ideas worked pretty darn well during his time whenever he hangs out with Impulse or Zedaph so that's a plus.

Doc continued to stare at Tango with a very confused look on his face. Cub looked a bit surprised with hints of confusion in his face. What even is an "ificator"? Then finally the creeper hybrid spoke up. "Okay we're definitely not doing that inator– thing that you mentioned. I don't even want to know what it is." He said, holding his hands up. Tango shrugged at that then put the papers down. "Ificator." Tango corrected. "Eh, understandable. So that means you guys are picking the magic part then?" He asked, a small excited smile on his face. If there's chaos, he's up for it.

Cub shrugged. "Doc's right, that option is better than whatever ificator you're talking about." He said, agreeing with what Doc said. Tango shrugged and suggested, "If the magic doesn't work we can try the ificators then?" He asked, grinning. Cub yawned and shot Tango a nod. Doc shrugged. "Sure.. why not. It seems like magic won't work anyway because there's no such thing as magic in Hermitcraft." He said, shaking his head. Cub looked to Doc at the mention of magic in Hermitcraft. "Well– there's one thing in Hermitcraft that's close to magic." He said, glancing at Tango. Tango shrugs at Cub, not knowing what he's hinting at.

Cub rose an eyebrow at the two of them. "Seriously? You guys don't know?" He asked, crossing his arms. "Scar! He's a wizard and his crystals are the closest thing to form magic." He said for his two clueless chaotic friends in front of him. Doc and Tango both muttered an "ohh". Tango nodded at that but frowned. "Well– Scar isn't around the base. And– we don't know where he is out there– we can't risk trying to find him for his crystals. He might even be infected as well." Doc said, pointing out a reasonable fact. Cub frowned a little at the thought of his best friend being infected as well. Tango looked at Cub, knowing what it felt like thinking of those thoughts too.

Cub sighed and smiled a little as he dug deep into his memory. "Well.. Scar offered me a deal of diamonds to get a shulker box of all of his magic crystals. I put them in a chest but the crystals grew out of the chest and literally pierced through my mini pyramid." He said, remembering buying the crystals from Scar. He wasn't reluctant to buy but he bought them anyway. Doc and Tango listened in to his words carefully. One trying to listen but can't fully concentrate because of his tiredness and one fully concentrating with the eagerness of learning where the magic Cub was telling them came from.

Cub chuckled a little. "I had to take them down and burry them in the ground somewhere not that far from my mini pyramid.." He trailed off, looking down at the ground and then staring right back up to Doc. "It's still burried there." He said with hopefulness in his voice. Tango frowned at that though. Well– good that they know where to get the magic from but that means they're going to have to travel back to the main areas of Hermitland. Doc glanced at Tango, having the same thought as his.

"Cub– it's either we travel back to main lands by– elytra or whatever but it'll take us so incredibly long. With the portal it wouldn't take that long but–" Tango cut himself off. He didn't want to think of how Impulse sacrificed himself for Tango's stupid self again. With all the ghasts and blazes that showed up he didn't think this plan would quite work out. Cub looked at Tango sympathetically. Doc had told him right after Tango had settled down that Impulse was with him but when Tango got here he's nowhere to be found. It made Cub think of all the possibilities that might have happened but didn't want to assume that much.

Doc looked at Cub and sighed. "Tango's right. Cub it's too dangerous to go out." He said, crossing his arms with a stern look on his face. Cub sighed at that and nodded. "I know it is. But I'm willing to do it. Whatever the cost! Plus it's the only thing we have of Scar left if he has been infected." He said, looking between the two of his friends. Doc and Tango looked at each other then back to Cub. "Then we'll go with you." Doc said, deciding for themselves already without a second thought. Cub was a bit glad that two of his friends were worried about him but he shook his head.

"No, I need to go by myself. I'm the only one who knows where it's burried." He said, standing up to get out of the lab. Doc stood up instinctively as well and grabbed Cub's shoulder. "Cub please. At least have someone with you! You're the only one who knows about the virus well enough. We can't lose you. Have Falsie come with you at least–" He expressed with fill concern. Cub glanced at Tango was still sitting down, watching the scene in front of him with a concerned look on his face as well. "Cub's right. It's either he doesn't go or he goes by himself. It's dangerous to go into a pair or groups in the nether." He said, can't bare the thought of losing another friend.

Doc was about to say something that opposes Tango's statement, but Tango beat him to it. "Cub you just have to promise is that you'll come back. Please." He said, standing up as well and putting his hands in top of the table. Doc sighed, it's probably the best for Cub to go alone. The look on Tango's face while saying those words already gave him his decision. "Fine. I'll agree for you to go alone but you need the others' approval first. And get you a full night's sleep." He said, still not fully agreeing with the two's decisions. It's only fair for the others to know what they're up to.

Cub smiled in satisfaction. "Yeah of course. I'll go tomorrow. But when I'm gone you two better work on that ificator that Tango suggested." He said, stopping himself from saying "for if I can't make it." but it's best not to be negative. Tango's face lit up at the mention of that. "Okay! Cub go now so we can start working on it!" He said jokingly, a small smirk on his face. Their Tango was back just like that. Doc rolled his eyes and lead the other two outside of the white lab after picking up his and Cub's empty plates. "Come on, let's go find the others and wash these plates." He said, motioning them to get out of the lab. "You're the boss, Doc." Tango said, punching Doc's arm playfully.

Cub chuckled and looked down the light gray concrete hallway to where the main area of their base was. To where their casual meeting area was as they like to call it. He looked at the two and smirked a little. "Race you two." He said, immediately running down the hallway to get to the others. "What! No fair you didn't give us a head start!" Tango called out to Cub as he chased after him. Doc rolled his eyes at the two as he picked up his pace from walking on the terracotta floor. It's as if there wasn't a deadly virus outside, his two friends were having a race down the hallway. Doc thought that maybe some things never change.


	12. We Will

Cub won that race because of running down the light gray concrete hallway without warning. Tango complained about the race, saying how it wasn't fair at all that he didn't even get a head start for the race. The two of them were now in front of the entrance of their main hang out area. Doc went out to their kitchen to wash their dirty dishes, getting out of the race since he didn't want to get involved. In reality, he just didn't want to lose as Tango did. Speaking of Tango, He was hitting Cub playfully, looking frustrated that he lost as Cub just laughed at him. Cub laughed as he continued to boast about his victory. Tango couldn't help but laugh with him as well. Just Hermits being Hermits, in the middle of a virus outbreak outside, everyone loved that for some reason.

While the two look like crazies at the entrance of the hang out place, one of the Hermits there noticed the two laughing about. It would have been common for Hermits to see their friends laughing about but given the situation they were in, it was pretty rare. But hey, a little bit of optimism and smiles can't really hurt these friends more right? The Hermits that noticed the two laughing friends was Ren who had a huge smile on his face while watching the two. He was sitting on one of the blue couches with Hypno and Mumbo but turned his attention to Cub and Tango by the entrance. He always loved seeing his friends laugh about and be happy, especially at this time.

Ren couldn't help but wave a hand over to them which caused Mumbo and Hypno to look at them as well. "Hey, guys! What are you laughing about?" He called out to Cub and Tango, a smile on his face. Tango looked over to Ren and shook his head. "Nothing! Nothing Ren. We're laughing about nothing!" He said, glaring at Cub not to tell Ren anything. Cub smirked at him and looked at Ren, Hypno, and Mumbo. "I won a race and he losttt." He made sure to emphasize lost as a way to tease Tango. Tango glared at him as he had a look of betrayal in his eyes. Ren laughed out loud. Hypno smiled at the two and congratulated Cub jokingly. Mumbo rolled his eyes at that and couldn't help but smile as well. Tango sighed and punched Cub as he walked up to the three other Hermits on the blue couch. "Anyway, don't mind him. Forget that Cub said that because he has an important thing to announce!" He exclaimed a smile on his face to not show that he was worried. He looked around and raised an eyebrow. "Wait where's everyone else?" He asked as he looked around their hang out place.

It was simple really, it looked like a lounge. The room had smooth sandstone walls, a contrast to the concrete walls in the hallway, and a dark oak wooden floor. The "lounge" has blue couches that could fit at least 10 people with extra bean bags that Tango, Ren, and Iskall sometimes sit on. A rug on the dark oak floor that matched the couches. There were also two coffee tables, both were big enough for someone to play board games on. Some plants in the corners to put some greenery. And finally a bookshelf. That almost has nothing in it other than copies of Cub's journals and two rips off board games that Iskall made himself. Tango is in the making of one since he thought that there's nothing that he could do other than help with the cure and help with chores of course. He was thinking of naming it along the lines of Deck of Cards with Dungeons and Beasts. It's still a work in progress.

"Falsie and Iskall went training down in the training room. Iskall said something along the lines of "we're training to punch those Thanos wanna-be's and diorite". If I remember correctly." Ren said, doing his best Iskall impression as he told Tango what his buddy Iskall had said to him before taking the elevator down to their training room. Tango rolled his eyes at that. Yeah, that wasn't so surprising for their Swedish potato. Hypno nodded at that, remembering what Iskall had said since he was hanging out with Ren earlier. "And we told TFC to go rest in our room for a bit after cleaning around the base. Which was.. an hour ago." Hypno said as he scratched the bottom of his chin. "And... Mumbo you just got here not long after Cub and Tango got here right?" He asked the mustached man next to him. Mumbo nodded. "Yeah, I just finished our automatic melon and pumpkin farm. We'll be having pumpkins and melons for days." He said, looking down at the ground with a small shy chuckle escaping his lips. "Delish!" Ren commented with a grin on his face.

Cub hummed and walked towards the group, sitting down on the carpet in front of the coffee table. "Couldn't agree more! Pumpkin pies are a blessing–" He paused with a short chuckle. "Anyway, Doc already knows about my announcement, plus I think he's just in the kitchen anyway." He said, explaining where their cyborg creeper friend went off to. "If it's not much trouble. Ren, can you go get TFC? And Tango gets Falsie and Iskall. My announcement is going to be, important." Cub said, a small nervous smile on his face. They all raised an eyebrow at Cub, Mumbo, and Ren having a curious look and Hypno looking overall confused. They all just nodded in unison. Tango then turned to Ren. "First one to get here with your assigned peeps race?" He suggested a smirk on his face. He needed to revoke his loss from Cub earlier. Ren's eyes lit up at that and smirked back. "I take the challenge! Let's do this baby!" He said, rolling up his sleeves.

Ren got out of the couch he was sitting on and went into a starting position. Tango smirked and walked up next to Ren. "3.. 2.. 1.. GO!" Tango counted down and just like that, the two sprinted off to their destinations in hopes of getting back with the friends they're supposed to bring back with them. Cub shook his head at the two with a small smile. Mumbo chuckled and crossed his arms. "I bet my one spending diamond on Ren." He said, a smirk on his face as he joined in the fun. Hypno laughed and shook his head. "Nah nah. Tango's got this. I bet one spending diamond on him." He said, crossing his arms as he got comfier on the couch. "Are you two seriously going to spend one of the only diamonds you have on a bet?" Cub asked in a bit of disbelief. Despite that, a small smile was shown on his face. "Oh come on. I know you want to join in too, Cub." Hypno smirked at Cub. Mumbo looked at Cub with another one of his small smiles. "Come on mate, it's just one diamond." He said, shrugging like it was no big deal. "Okay. 2 diamonds on Tango," Cub said with a smirk similar to Hypno.

"I heard we're betting on people? What for?" Doc's voice could be heard by the entrance. He walked into the room while wiping his wet hands on his ripped lab coat. Cub looked over to Doc, shaking his head. "Doc you're broke you can't join this bet." He said, teasing Doc about his lack of money. Doc rolled his eyes and sat next to Hypno. "We're all broke so that's no excuse. Come on what're we betting on." He said, wanting to join in on his friends' shenanigans. Mumbo chuckled. "Tango and Ren raced and we're betting on who wins." He explained to their creeper friend. "Alright, I'll bet two diamonds on Ren," Doc said immediately, not even asking how many bets were in. Mumbo snorted. "We're tied then. I'll bet another diamond." He said, crossing his arms. Hypno rolled his eyes. "Alright, I'll bet another one as well." He said, putting their final bets in.

After the final bet, Doc got to rest his eyes as he sunk into their comfortable couch. Mumbo and Cub started talking about Mumbo's new pumpkin and melon farm and what other farms they could make. Hypno listened in their conversation, making a few remarks on what they were talking about as they all eagerly waited to see who won their little bet. Then they heard Ren's voice through the corridor. Mumbo grinned as he saw Ren and TFC running in the room. Poor TFC, he probably doesn't like running unlike Ren, the energetic Diggity dog. Oh, Mumbo and Doc are going to be rich. Ren looked around the room and panted. He was looking for Tango probably. He smiled when he didn't see the red eyes anywhere. "Yes! Another win for Ren Diggity dog baby!" He said, dancing.

TFC immediately sat down on one of the other couches and tried to catch his breath. Just as he did that, Tango stormed into the room with False and Iskall behind him. Tango gasped when he saw Ren there before him. "NOOO! Not another loss!" He said dramatically as he got down to his knees and started banging the floor. "Iskall I told you to leave the diorite alone!" Tango cried out to Iskall as he continued banging the floor with his hands. Iskall laughed at Tango as he went over to one of the bean bags to flop himself on. "Couldn't help it." He said, a smirk on his face. False just rolled her eyes at everyone and sat down next to TFC with her arms crossed.

Mumbo smiled and turned to Hypno and Cub. "Diamondss!" He sang, shaking Doc awake. Doc of course woke up at the sound of diamonds and looked around the room. "Wait– who won?" He asked, rubbing his eye to get a clearer vision of the room. "I won baby!" Ren exclaimed, continuing to be proud of his victory. Doc frowned at that. "Whatt?! Noo! I missed the win!" He said, crossing his arms. Cub and Hypno sighed and gave Mumbo and Doc a diamond each from their pocket. Tango looked up from his devastating loss and glared at the four exchanging diamonds. "You bet on us?" He asked, getting up from the help of Ren. Iskall laughed at that and shook his head. "I definitely feel better for stopping to burn the diorite. No regrets!" He said, sticking his tongue out at Tango.

TFC chuckled at everyone in the room. It's the first time they were all gathered up in a while like this. "I know we're having fun and all but didn't Cub want to announce something?" TFC asked as he looked over to Cub who gazed right back. Cub gulped a little and nodded. "Yeah, I do." He said looking at everyone. "Sit down everyone. It's important." He said to everyone, now being comfy on the floor rug, sitting crisscross. Ren sat next to Iskall on one of the bean bags as Tango took a bean bag next to TFC and False's couch. "Go ahead Cub," False said, nodding to him. Cub looked over to Doc and then to Tango. Both were encouraging him to tell the others what's on his mind as well.

Cub took a small breath in and looked around at everyone. "Well. We might have found a way to get the cure for the chaos outside." He started, his face looking as serious as possible and making sure that everyone heard what he said. Ren's eyes lit up at that sound and smiled as he almost got out of his bean bag. The others smiled as well, relieved that they're getting somewhere to save their friends. But Cub wasn't done, he wasn't smiling. Neither are Tango and Doc. "Don't get your hopes up. I'm not done." Cub continued, now holding the table in front of him. "It's either we get magic to cure them or.. make an ificator?" He turned to Tango to ask for confirmation if he said that right. Tango nodded, a small smile on his face.

Cub nodded back. "Right, that. No vaccines will work, because we're pretty convinced the virus isn't a medical virus. It's a virus from the program of the world. The ificator can change the world's program, and so can the magic I was talking about. The three of us talked and.. we agreed on getting magic since the ificator idea seemed unreliable. However.." He trailed off, looking to the side. The others raised an eyebrow at Cub, feeling the tension in the room. "However what?" False finally asked, tilting her head to the side. Cub sighed and looked at False. "The magic I'm talking about is back at my base and it's too far away from here. Scar's crystals which he gave to me in a shulker box. I buried it somewhere outside my base–" Now everyone else was even more confused by that. Cub chuckled and dismissed the crystals. "That's another story for another time but now.." He trailed off, continuing to where he left off.

"It would be too risky if I used elytra in the overworld. It would take me longer to get back. And going through the nether portals would be risky as well but less long." He explained as he took a glance at Tango whose face darkened by the mention of nether portals. Iskall picked up on Cub's choice of words. Putting "I" instead of "we" like he was going alone. "Wait a minute. Who said you're going to go alone on the journey to get the crystals?" He asked Cub, raising an eyebrow. He would definitely go with Cub if it means they would have the chance to save and cure their friends. He's pretty sure the others would want to come with him as well.

Cub sighed and smiled a little. "I was just getting to that part.." He muttered out then turning to Iskall. "I was thinking of going by myself since I'm the only person who knows where those magic crystals are buried." He explained to everyone. "And I made this meeting not only to tell you the news that we might have cracked the case but also to ask permission if I can go alone." He finally said, shrugging. TFC's eyebrows raised at that then furrowed them quickly after realizing what Cub just said. Everyone else was now looking between each other, not knowing what to say but having the same thought in mind. False finally spoke up. "Cub! No! We're not letting you go out alone with those monsters. You might get infected or even worse– killed!" She said, looking at Cub straight in the eyes.

The others agreed, nodded and some even muttered to the others. All of them did that except for Doc, Cub, and Tango. Doc was leaning back on the couch, staying silent with a face full of mixed emotions. Cub was looking back at everyone and sighing at the sight. He wasn't going to go alone if everyone else forbids him to go. Then there's Tango. His face looked upset, sad even. He was remembering the time where he and Impulse were together, getting to this very base. Hypno looked at everyone and cleared his throat so everyone would stop what they're doing.

Hypno sighed and crossed his arms. "Cub– that's a very, very stupid reason for you to go alone. Even if someone goes with you, you could just show the way to the buried treasure– er.. crystals. At least just take one person with you someone good at directions and capable of defending themselves." He suggested, looking to the others to see if they agree with his suggestion. The others nodded along, agreeing with what Hypno suggested. Mumbo nodded at that and sighed. "We can't lose any one of us guys again. Not anymore." He said, looking to the side feeling nervous about all of what's happening.

Then, Tango snapped. It was very out of character for him to snap. He's most likely the type to cheer people up, be angry in a playful way, but he couldn't take it anymore. He lost his close friends. He can't lose any more of his friends anymore. "Don't you guys see– if you make Cub take one of you, either one of the two will most probably die?!" He said, getting out of his bean bag and standing up with tears threatening to spill out of his eyes. False and TFC immediately tried to calm him down but Tango shrugged them away with his shoulder. "Mumbo's right! We can't lose anyone again but having some sort of bodyguard by Cub's side would just make it worse! I can't– we can't–" He couldn't help it, tears started to slowly roll down his face. Everyone sat there shocked at what just happened. It was unexpected to see Tango cry, he's been one of the most supportive people on the base.

TFC did his best to make Tango sit down next to him and False who also looked worried for the red-eyed friend. Tango let out a small sniffle sound and wiped his tears away as he sat down in the middle of False and TFC. False whispering "it's okay" to him repeatedly and TFC rubbing circles behind his back. Doc looked over to Tango and bit his lip. If his intuition was right, that Impulse got left behind, he'll feel very sorry for him. "Tango.. it was Impulse, wasn't it? He got left behind when you came here, didn't he?" He asked him with this hint of worry in his eyes for his red-eyed friend. Those two were always inseparable, no wonder why Tango was so upset about it that it got Tango, the cheerful chaotic genius that he is to cry. Tango looked at the ground, biting the inside of his cheek. "Y-Yes. Yeah, Impulse.. saved me from those blasted ghasts and blazes." He clenched his fists to stop himself from spilling more tears out. "He said– he said I should go ahead and he would just catch up to me but– he didn't." He said, sighing and leaning back on the couch.

Everyone in the room felt bad for Tango. Ren crossed his arms and looked at Tango. "Tango... I'm sure Impulse is still out there somewhere. He's a brave boomer. I get it, you're looking out for Cub, for all of us, you don't want anyone to get hurt, we don't want anyone getting hurt. But Tango you have to trust us. They will be fine. They'll try their best to save each other and not let anyone get left behind. What might have happened to Impulse was bad but, he did that because– you're also important to him. He saved your life so you could be with us. And now it's our turn to save his life as well. So come on Tango, cheer up! We can do this, yeah?" He said all of that with the sincerest voice he has, with a hint of hope in his eyes. Classic Ren always getting so sentimental and supportive about everything and everyone. Tango rolled his eyes at that and chuckled. "Man– you sounded like some person who has a microphone in the sidewalk giving out inspirational speeches right there– but... I guess you're right. I need to trust all of you to be able to take care of yourselves. Thank you, Ren." He said, nodding and now back to smiling.

Doc chuckled and everyone was back to their light-hearted selves after Ren's speech. "Leave it to Ren to always give you those sappy speeches." He said rolling his eyes. That's one of the reasons why they all loved Ren. Ren smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his neck. "Well, geez guys, don't leave all the credit to me– anyway what about the person coming with Cub? Don't we all get to decide on who would go?" He asked, desperately trying to change the topic. Cub nodded. "Who wants to go with good old me?" He asked, tilting his head to the side. Iskall smirked and looked to Mumbo. "I think Mumbo wants a go!" He said, crossing his arms. Mumbo's eyes widened and immediately waved his hands. "Hey! I'm not good at fighting mobs mate! I'm– I'm a bit pants at that!" He said, now shaking his head as well. Iskall let out his signature laugh, making some of the others laugh. "I was just kidding Mumbo." He said. "I know you're terrible at PvP anyway." He continued, snickering. "Oh thank goo— hey! I'm not that bad!" He argued back to Iskall, now hitting his head.

Iskall let out a small "ow" which made the others have a chuckle themselves. "Okay okay– how about a volunteer? Doc and Tango are off-limits since the two of them are going to work on an ificator as a backup if the crystals don't work." Cub said, eying the crowd. False raised a hand. "I can volunteer. It'll be fun." She said as if what they're going to do isn't a suicide mission, nodding to Cub. Cub smiled. "Then I guess that's settled. We leave through the portal first thing in the morning. That concludes this meeting everyone. I gotta go rest my eyes." He said, chuckling to himself. Everyone smiled and nodded, now going back to whatever they were doing before the meeting.

The only people left in the room were Cub, False, Doc, and Tango. "You two better not get up to any shenanigans while we're gone," Cub said to Doc and Tango to which they laughed. Tango shook his head. "Don't worry Cubby, the ificator will be professionally handled by the professional TangoTek with his assistant Docm77." He said a sly smile on his face. Doc raised an eyebrow at that. "Since when was I your assistant?" He asked, putting his hands on his hips to which False and Cub laughed. Tango looked over to False and Cub. "Please. Be safe alright?" He said, concern in his eyes. False and Cub nodded. "Don't worry." Cub started.

"We will."


End file.
